"Angie, I know you like to sing," her father, a worker, told Angela Brown, "but you must have something to fall back on  ." Brown took her father's advice. She got a degree in secretarial science before entering Oakwood College, in Huntsville, Alabama. However, her aim was to become a singer at religious meetings. So after graduation she headed for Indiana University to study with the famous soprano   Virginia Zeani. Once, when Brown was troubled by self-doubt, Zeani said to her, "If you want to be the next Aretha Franklin, you need no more lessons," Brown remembers her saying. "But if you want to be the best Verdian  soprano this world has ever seen, you must work." Work she did. Three times she competed in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions  . Three times she failed to make the final round in New York. Then, in 1997 at age 33, the age limit for sopranos to audition, she gave it one more try. She signed up at the last minute and didn't even practice, thinking, "All they could do was to tell me no, and that didn't hurt my feelings anymore." She had the strength she needed to fall back on if she failed. She won. But making it in New York was just the beginning. It took her three more years to become an understudy   at the Met. But waiting in the wings was fine with her. Finally, her time came. When the featured singer fell ill, Brown earned the chance to sing the lead role in Aida. And The New York Times described her performance as a great success. Angela Brown, who had prepared for 20 years, was an "overnight" successful singer at age 40. When did Angela Brown act as an understudy at the Met?
From 1997 to 2000. From 2000 to 2004. From 1997 to 2004. From 2000 to 2006.