MUSIC : Born Again Into Opera : Soprano resumes her career, saying she regained her spirituality during a short hiatus

On April 9, American soprano Deborah Polaski made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Kundry in Wagner’s “Parsifal,” an Otto Schenk production, new last year, that she had never seen, and for which she had had only three piano rehearsals. As is usual with late-season cast changes, it was a baptism by fire, all too common on the international opera circuit these days. Eyewitnesses say she received an ovation.

Incredibly, none of the four New York dailies reviewed the event, even though the soprano is a major Wagnerian singer who four years ago created headlines when she canceled performances of “Der Fliegende Hollander” with the San Francisco Opera, saying that God had come to her in her hotel room and told her to sing opera no more. All that has changed.

In an interview, Polaski, who turns 43 this month, seems relaxed and happy as she explains the turnaround: “God did not come to me in as dramatic a fashion as in San Francisco. But it was clear as glass, and I had a gut feeling he wanted me to return. Somewhere along the way I had lost my spiritual consciousness. Opera became my obsession, my god. That’s no longer the case. When I am not singing I am home in Greensburg, Indiana, with my family.”

The soprano is a “born-again” Christian, whose father, Lloyd Poe (she chose Polaski, believing it to be the original family name), is a retired Methodist minister.

“I have more faith now than ever before. My faith is even stronger. God gave me this voice, and I believe I am using it as he wishes. My family has been very supportive. They didn’t buck my decision. My mother had come to San Francisco at my request. They certainly didn’t kidnap me, as some rumors said,” she says, laughing.

The Rev. Poe affirmed in a telephone interview his daughter’s comments: “We support her decision. Her outlook has changed. She is not involved now in the culture of the profession but accepts it in Christian terms.”

After a short hiatus, Polaski in the spring of 1989 resumed her career in Germany with performances in Cologne and Stuttgart. She returned to Bayreuth last summer (she had opened a new “Ring” production in 1988) for stagings of “Die Walkure” and “Gotterdammerung” and will be there again this summer to sing the first “Ring” cycle. Her schedule will also include engagements in Stuttgart, Berlin (under Daniel Barenboim for “Ring” cycles and “Elektra”) and Frankfurt for her first Marschallin in “Rosenkavalier.”

This month, after the Met, she will sing her 50th Elektra (“my favorite part”) in Leipzig.

Polaski is well aware that she was on dangerous ground professionally when she canceled her appearances in San Francisco but says she was not harmed in the long run. There were no lawsuits over the broken contracts. No doors appear to be closed to her. San Francisco Opera seems to bear no grudges. Lotfi Mansouri, the head of the company, stated: “There are possibilities of future projects but nothing concrete at the present.”

Some administrators, like Gotz Friedrich in Berlin, were personally hurt, she says, and her Columbia Artists Management division, Zemsky and Green, was certainly not happy at losing its commissions.

“I asked myself whether they were working for me or I was working for them. I hope there are no hard feelings. I just might pop in on them and say hello,” she says with a smile. For the present she relies on a European agent for her affairs.

“I want to get a foot in the door in American houses,” Polaski says. “Ideally I’d like to spend 40% of my time here so I can be with my family more. I will return to the Spoleto Festival this May in Charleston for ‘Fidelio.’ ” Polaski is heavily booked in Europe, and although she has had discussions with the Met, she says “nothing is in black and white.”

“I would love to do a ‘Ring’ and ‘Elektra’ with Jimmie Levine (the Met’s music director). Everyone had told me how wonderful he was with singers, and I said to myself, ‘No one can be that good.’ Well, let me tell you, he is. He is truly marvelous.”

As to the future, she seems comfortable with her niche in the Wagner and Strauss repertory: “I’ve sung just about everything and lots of Italian, but the German I’m most comfortable with. I speak the language fluently and love being able to sing those wonderful Hoffmansthal (the most inspired of Strauss’ librettists) and Wagner texts.”

Four years ago Polaski told The Times that should she decide to come back to opera, God would show her the way and protect her. She believes he has done just that.