Critics struggle to try to find the right words to describe Krisztina Szabo’s voice. Her superb mezzo soprano has been called everything from “honeyed” to “ravishing” to “ringing” to “sumptuous” and, of course, the old standard “gorgeous.”

The Chicago Tribune called her acting “deeply poignant” and noted that “Krisztina Szabó stole every scene with her powerful, mahogany voice.” There are not many voices rich and deeply honeyed enough to be described as “mahogany.”

When she made her debut at Lincoln Centre at the Mostly Mozart Festival, the New York Times gushed that her performance was “clear, strong, stately and … endearingly vulnerable.”

Raised in Mississauga and a graduate of Port Credit Secondary School, Krisztina lived here until 1998. She began playing piano at the age of 9, the same year she auditioned with the Toronto Children’s Choir by singing that well-known operatic set piece — “O Canada.” She recalled that it was “the only song I knew.”

She’s learned a few others since then, enough to put her on many of the world’s great opera stages. She studied piano at the University of Western Ontario until her final year when she decided — thank goodness for opera fans around the world — that she wanted to be a singer and not a teacher.

After completing her studies at Western, Szabo applied — via audio tape — to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London England. Although she describes it as a “bit of a fluke” to be accepted without a live audition, one suspects the school recognized genuine talent — even when it arrived via overseas post.

She won the Canadian Opera Company’s Mozart competition and after being accepted into the COC’s Ensemble Studio, she has become a fixture on the national opera scene. She also regularly performs recital, concert and chamber repertoire not just because she genuinely enjoys it, but also in order to remain close to her Toronto home and her husband and daughter.

In 2005 she won the MARTY for Established Performing Artist from the Mississauga Arts Council. Her former Toronto Children’s Choir instructor Jean Bartle says, “even as an 11-year-old she had a magic sound. She’s a lovely person.”

The key to her success in bringing characters to life on stage — characters that could easily be caricatures in the wrong hands — is Szabo’s ability to get inside a role and project the human emotions of the character, while delivering the vocals that have won her plaudits everywhere she has worked.

“You must be vulnerable when you perform,” says Szabo. “It’s that deep emotionality that connects us all. It’s about being human.” In reminding us of that human connection, Szabo’s work consistently rises about the level of great performance and becomes something more — something that distinguishes her as one of those rare artists who have access to that special place where we all live — but which we do not want to show to the world.

Her gift is the gift of revelation of soul through song. It is a rare and unusual gift — and one to be treasured by all.