This weekend will be a big one for superstar soprano Kelli O’Hara.

The Broadway diva and eight-time Tony nominee will make her Los Angeles debut, performing for the LA Opera on Saturday and attending the Grammys on Sunday for the first time (she’s been nominated twice before, but had show conflicts that kept her from attending).

At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1, the stage and screen star will bring a new version of her solo show to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as part of an LA Opera series hosting premiere vocalists for an evening. O’Hara, who has performed on Broadway and at the Met, is excited about coming to Los Angeles, especially now.

“I’ll be making my debut there — and I won’t be singing opera,” O’Hara said.

“I’ll be doing what I normally do, which is a big symphony version of my solo show where I play a lot of the songs that have been in my life and roles — from roles that I’ve played to songs that are just personal to me.”

With Bob Bernhardt as the conductor and Dan Lipton as the music director and pianist, O’Hara said the songs will be performed with great orchestration.

Her goal is to create a joyful night during a time when many Angelenos are struggling.

“With everything going on right now in LA, I feel like there’s really nothing better than art to have a little bit of an escape for one night,” O’Hara said.

With the fires causing devastation across Los Angeles, the LA Opera decided to “provide respite and comfort” by offering free concert tickets to fire-affected residents, first responders and those providing extraordinary care to those affected. Their goal is to make O’Hara’s concert a night of “healing and love with a truly iconic artist.”

Up to four tickets per person can be claimed here: laopera.org.

O’Hara stated that although some people may view art as trivial, she said she believes it can serve as a source of healing and a means to help make sense out of confusion and devastation.

“We can share music together, share stories together,” O’Hara said. “LA, above any other place, is the place of creation, of imagination. I’m beyond honored to be going at a time when maybe the city needs to be — wants to be — reminded of what it’s about and the strength of that imagination and creation. You can build back no matter what. It’s not brain surgery what I do, but at least there’s a moment of shared remembrance of the way art can heal.”

The LA Opera concert allows O’Hara to tell her story in a new environment, in a space she describes as both intimate and able to accommodate many people and musicians.

The solo shows also allow her to curate the songs she wishes to sing and share a deeply personal story. Unlike her Broadway appearances — which have included shows like “The King and I,” “The Light in the Piazza,” “South Pacific,” “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Days of Wine and Roses” — this night features her reflecting on her life and relationships rather than telling a story created by someone else.

“One of the things I get to do is sing a song of my husband’s,” O’Hara said. “He’s in a band called The Sweet Remains and they do beautiful southern folk rock. I’m not a southern folk rock singer by any means, but the lyrics of the song are really moving to me and I have my wonderful guitar player coming, Justin Goldner.”

While she won’t be singing any arias, she said that some of her numbers have operatic influences. She will also be performing songs from her musical theater career. She will sing some of the songs that people know her best for, but she doesn’t limit herself to those.

“I don’t go over every single song I’ve ever sung on Broadway because I did those so many times,” O’Hara said. “I have orchestrations of songs from those shows that maybe my leading man got to sing.”

This past fall, she and Lipton put together a show that was just her vocals, a piano and a guitar that she titled “Thank You, Ladies.”

It was a tribute to the women in her life who inspired her, both personally and professionally. Elements of that show will feature in her LA performance. The women include figures like Barbara Cook, Victoria Clark and Julie Andrews, as well as those close to her, such as her sister, daughter and mother.

“This show married two very specific parts of my life, which is my singing and the reason I sing,” O’Hara said.

“I try to always feel purposeful with it, to be of service.

“Choosing the songs that I did, being able to talk about an individual person, was something really good for my heart, so I want to continue that with a nice, big orchestra and talk to the audience.

“I’m going to LA and I want it to be less about show biz and more about heart,” O’Hara said.

One story she shared during the concert was about a highly memorable moment in her career that didn’t take place in a big venue or before a large crowd.

In the mid-2000s, she had been performing in “The Light in the Piazza” on Broadway. In it was a song co-written by Betty Comden. However, Comden was ill and wasn’t able to come see the show.

O’Hara and her co-star, Vicki Clark, were invited to Comden’s apartment just before her passing.

“They had a hospice bed there in the living room,” O’Hara said. “We sang the score, almost like a lullaby to her, so that she could hear it. I was pretty young and I remember thinking in that moment that this is what it’s about for me. I love the big audiences. I love the big crowds. I love having a shared moment with a lot of people. But I really, really love the purpose and the service of just communicating with one person, too.”

As she tells her stories to Angelenos this weekend, she will share a career about which she has no regrets. She said she sometimes makes hard choices because she is a mother and has a family, but that she feels very good about where she is.

This weekend, that will be in Los Angeles at the LA Opera and then finding out whether she and her fellow singers Joyce DiDonato and Renee Fleming will win a Grammy for “Best Opera Recording” for “Puts: The Hours.”

An exciting weekend by anyone’s standards.