Angel Blue Doubted Her Path in Opera. Now She’s a Star.

Once used to frequent rejection letters, Blue has become a regular on major stages and is singing the title role in “Aida” at the Metropolitan Opera.

Moments before she went onstage in “Aida” at the Metropolitan Opera on a recent night, the soprano Angel Blue was in her dressing room, smiling and blowing kisses on a livestream for fans.

Blue, who sings the title role in “Aida,” was emotional, telling her followers that she was thinking that evening about her father, Sylvester, who died in 2006 and, as a musician, helped inspire her interest in opera. She said she was singing for him, for her fans and for herself.

“I pray and hope that your dreams come true,” she said. “The things that you desire are at the tips of your fingers, if you will believe that. I know I believe it, and I kept believing it. And I’m realizing all my dreams right now by being here at the Met, singing this great opera.”

Blue, 40, a former model and beauty queen from Apple Valley, Calif., once doubted her path in opera, dispirited by a wave of rejections early in her career.

But she is now a regular on the world’s leading stages, including at the Met, whose new production of “Aida” will be simulcast to movie theaters around the world on Saturday. In this opera, she has found a defining role. Blue has been praised by critics for her shimmering voice and the intensity of her portrayal, and she has won acclaim from colleagues in the opera field.