She’s one of the greatest contralto singers in the world; a French-speaking Canadian opera star who has performed on stage across the planet. Marie-Nicole Lemieux talks to Eve Jackson about wanting to speak to the audience’s emotions through music, being a body positive role model for women of different shapes and sizes and why Maria Callas’s tragic life nearly put her off becoming an opera singer. You can see her perform at the Bastille Opera house as Mrs Quickly in Verdi’s “Falstaff” until September 30. After that she’ll be back in January for Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”.