"I am a woman first, a singer second," says Veronica Villarroel, the Chilean soprano who will take on the title role of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," opening Saturday in the Benedum Center. "I have never been as ambitious as most singers I know," she adds. "Being a human being is more important to me than being a singer. Singing doesn't make me particularly happy."

Villarroel is scrupulously, disarmingly honest. Film director Lydia Bendersky titled a 2003 documentary about her "The Accidental Diva."

Born into a working-class family in a poor section of Santiago, the young Villarroel sold cleaning products door to door when her father was unable to work after a heart attack. For a while she went into gymnastics.

"I didn't want to be a singer," she insists. "I was not psychologically prepared for this career. It just happened that I had to support my family.

"I had a natural voice," she continues, "and a zarzuela [Spanish operetta] company needed people for the chorus. I learned the part by ear, and imitated the way the solo singers sang. But I was very sad, very lonely. I am a disco girl, a fun girl. I incorporated discipline into my life very late."

After the stint with zarzuela, Villarroel decided to audition for Santiago Opera.

"They were doing 'La Boheme' and gave me the part of Musetta opposite Renata Scotto as Mimi."

This was a turning point, because the famous diva recognized the younger soprano's natural talents and brought her to the Juilliard School in New York.

"I had no musical education," Villarroel points out. "Scotto just insisted that they accept me in their program, and she had enough clout to do it."

It paid off. In 1988, Villarroel won the Pavarotti Competition. A year later she was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. When she sang in the winners concert on the Metropolitan Opera House stage, The New York Times noted that she was "clearly the favorite of the audience." She made her official Met debut as Mimi in "La Boheme" in 1991.

At 42, Villarroel says, "I'm grateful now for the opportunity to sing. I had to accept love in my life first. That's still more important than singing." She mentions having a boyfriend in Manhattan, where they both reside: "I need the support of people who love me."

Of Puccini's Japanese heroine, she says, "I'm very different from Cio-Cio-San, but we're both women, we're both human. I wouldn't wait for a man for three years. I wouldn't wait for a man for half an hour. Maybe that's a cultural difference."

Her favorite moments in "Madama Butterfly" are "the times when Butterfly is vulnerable but at the same time strong: parts of the Love Duet, the letter scene in Act 2."

But the entire role is demanding. "If you don't have it in your gut, you can't do it," she says. "You can't do it intellectually. My blood pressure rises when I sing 'Un bel di' or 'Che tua madre.' I have to give everything in this role, and every time I do it, it is different."

Among the high points of the career that chose her, the soprano cites singing with superstar tenor Placido Domingo. "People love him," she says. "I always feel so good singing with him as a partner."

She had the female lead opposite Domingo in Manuel Penella's rarely heard zarzuela, "El gato montes," which they recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in 1993 and revived in live performance at the Los Angeles Music Center the following year.

Another special occasion was opening night of the Met's 1999-2000 season, when Villarroel sang opposite Domingo in "Pagliacci." She said that in the first half of that evening, Domingo's tenor protege, Jose Cura, made his house debut in "Cavalleria Rusticana."

Although Villarroel has a sophisticated Web site and can be seen on YouTube in an aria from "Turandot," she denies interest in 21st-century technology. "I don't check the Internet for blogs and reviews. I'm too vulnerable. I use it to communicate with my loved ones."

If her singing doesn't make her happy, she hopes it will make others so.

"I'd like to heal people with my singing."