Opera Quotes

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. (W. H. Auden)
Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process. View quote
Kenneth Clark
In opera, as with any performing art, to be in great demand and to command high fees you must be good of course, but you must also be famous. The two are different things. View quote
Luciano Pavarotti
People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it. View quote
Noël Coward
The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one. View quote
Jean de La Bruyère
I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all like an opera. View quote
William Butler Yeats
Music conveys moods and images. Even in opera, where plots deal with the structure of destiny, it's music, not words, that provides power. View quote
Marcel Marceau
There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva. View quote
Josh Groban
As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully. View quote
Luciano Pavarotti
Love in France is a comedy; in England a tragedy; in Italy an opera seria; and in Germany a melodrama. View quote
Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington
Take opera for example - to go to the opera you have to dress up in a tuxedo and pay lots of money. (Wim Wenders)
But I won't deprive myself of singing opera as long as my voice follows. View quote
Placido Domingo
Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time. View quote
Bobby McFerrin
It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created. View quote
Bruce Beresford
I still the love classic period, but also the baroque period, and even 17th-Century music such as the music of Monteverdi. He's one of the greatest opera composers. He was the one who really started the opera. View quote
Cecilia Bartoli
At the moment I'm enjoying a new challenge at the Royal Opera House, but I'm also keen to pursue my interest in television and particularly in science. View quote
Deborah Bull
To tell you the truth, I never listen to opera at home. View quote
Lesley Garrett
They're getting me involved in intrigue again, and I think it follows a classic formula in a soap opera. View quote
Michael Zaslow
Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti. View quote
Neville Marriner
It takes a little more time to get into the role, but not very much more. In making a record you don't have the sense of projection over a distance as in an opera house. We have this microphone and this magnifies all details of a performance, all exaggerations. In the theater, you can get away with a very large, very grand phrase. For the microphone, you have to tone it down. It's the same as making a film, your gestures will be seen in close-up, so they cannot be exaggerated as they would be in a theater. View quote
Maria Callas
An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house. (Maria Callas)
You ought to be thankful for the little things But little things are all you seem to give You're always putting off what we can do today Soap opera says you've got one life to live Who's right, who's wrong? View quote
Janet Jackson
I regard the people as a great being, inspired by a single idea. This is my problem. I strove to solve it in this opera. View quote
Modest Mussorgsky
When you decide to become an opera singer, it's a commitment that allows nothing else to interfere. Even your family - and I have a young daughter - has to take second place. View quote
Lucy Lawless
The error in the art-genre of Opera consists herein: a Means of expression (Music) has been made the end, while the End of expression (the Drama) has been made a means. View quote
Richard Wagner