Sheila Christie knows how to make an impression. Sauntering into a relaxed Main Street coffee shop on a late-summer afternoon, the soprano sports a polka-dotted vintage-style halter dress, John Fluevog heels, and a fuchsia cardigan. Her dark eyes are accentuated with elaborate cat’s-eye makeup, and a glittery bow-shaped pendant graces her neck.

“I pretty much always dress up,” she says with a laugh, tossing her dyed-red hair. “You never know when you’re going to run into someone from the opera world.”

In an industry where the ultimate first impression—the audition—can launch or torpedo a career, it’s understandable that the Lethbridge, Alberta–raised Christie likes to keep up appearances. But the 35-year-old singer, who graduated from UBC in 2002 with a Master of Music in opera performance, should be able to breathe a little easier, at least for the coming year. This fall, after 11 years working mainly as a music teacher and member of the Vancouver Opera chorus, she joins VO’s new Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program, in which she will understudy four soprano roles in the coming season.

“I’m young for my voice type,” notes Christie, explaining that she is what’s called a “spinto”, or young dramatic, soprano—somewhere between a full dramatic and lyric soprano. “I graduated at 24 and I was way too young to be doing anything.”

Biding her time after earning her degree, Christie began teaching privately and coordinating a musical-theatre program at the Richmond Academy of Dance. Then, in 2011, she landed the small part of the High Priestess in VO’s 2012 production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, and she went on to sing the title role for the company’s school visits. Suddenly, she says, everything clicked into place: “I realized that my voice had settled into the repertoire, which is what people told me when I was in my 20s. They said, ‘Your voice will settle, but you have to give it time.’ ”

With a renewed sense of purpose, she began intensive voice coaching and lessons, and did rounds of auditions—ultimately landing the VO apprenticeship, during which she’ll train for up to six hours a day, six days a week, and earn a paycheque. This season she’ll understudy everyone from the larger-than-life title character in Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca (which opens October 26 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre) to the revenge-minded Donna Anna in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni next spring.

“I’m so excited,” Christie, who once toyed with the idea of going to med school, relates with an infectious grin. “The way you kind of have to do an opera career now is everyone expects you to have at least a bachelor’s degree, and then the next step has to be one of these apprenticeship programs in North America, because otherwise you can’t break in to the industry. Then you still have to get some work, and then you have to get an agent. And then, hopefully, your career takes off.”

Okay, so she may not have won a golden ticket to operatic stardom, but it’s a start. And a little extra eye shadow can’t hurt.