these 2 sounds are always hard, unless they are followed by мягкий знак
They are just always hard.
Your Russian pronunciation is very good, close to native. You tend to soften ш, ж. They must be velarized. щ is not soft enough either.
ГлЯдя, счАстлива. Оперный, not Опэрный. Some soft R seemed hard to me, when I listened attentively, like приезжал, прекрасный. Разве я смогу петь в опере? It's not clear what word is in question. You should have raised the intonation on у in смогу. Как ты считаешь? The stress and rising intonation should be on как. Знаю, читал ваши произведения. There should be a pause between знаю and читал.
There were extra pauses, but it was connected with reading.
How did you achieve such results? My English pronunciation is much worse.