Best Opera Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 13

“The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna.”

Persons Hands Opera Conductor Tenors Prima Donnas

Author:Giuseppe Verdi

“Visitation Street is urban opera writ large. Gritty and magical, filled with mystery, poetry and pain, Ivy Pochoda’s voice recalls Richard Price, Junot Diaz, and even Alice Sebold, yet it’s indelibly her own.”

Pain Voice Mystery Streets Filled Opera Recalls Urban Ivy Visitation

Author:Dennis Lehane

“For me, you say the words 'concept record,' and the first thing I think of is theater or the opera or something.”

Thinking Firsts Records Concepts Theater Opera

Author:Chester Bennington

“Opera is like a husband with a foreign title: expensive to support, hard to understand, and therefore a supreme social challenge.”

Hard Funny Social Understanding Challenges Support Husband Supreme Titles Expensive Opera

Author:Cleveland Amory

“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.”

Stills Century Periods Classic Opera Composer Baroque 17th Century Baroque Music

Author:Cecilia Bartoli

“Opera is a musical scenery, a musical atmosphere in which the characters move and talk.”

Character Moving Musical Atmosphere Opera Scenery

Author:Erik Satie

“My dream is to be played everywhere, not only at the Opera.”

Dream Opera

Author:Erik Satie

“'Gone With The Wind' is one of the all-time greats. Read Margaret Mitchell's book and watch the film again; it's a soap opera in all its glory. It is superb and memorable.”

Book Film Watches Gone Wind Glory All Time Memorable Opera Soap Superb Soap Operas

Author:Timothy Dalton

“I can't sing a lick but that's nobody's business. God listens when I sing to Him and He thinks I am an opera star.”

Thinking I Can Stars Opera

Author:Aiden Wilson Tozer

“I hate the opera. I think I must have a tin ear. No matter how hard I concentrate it still sounds like a bunch of Italian chefs screaming risotto recipes at each other.”

Thinking Stills Matter Hard Hate Sound Ears I Hate Bunch Italian Opera Chef Recipes Tin Risotto

Author:Aristotle Onassis

“My first offer was when I was 12, and it was for a soap opera. And I turned it down because I knew that I was an unformed actor, and I didn't want to develop bad habits.”

Want Firsts Actors Habit Offers Opera Soap Bad Habits Soap Operas

Author:Claire Danes

“The earth was once molten rock and now sings operas.”

Earth Rocks Opera

Author:Brian Swimme

“Four billion years ago the planet Earth was molten rock; now it sings opera!”

Years Earth Four Rocks Planets Years Ago Billions Opera Planet Earth

Author:Brian Swimme

“Grand opera is the most powerful of stage appeals and that almost entirely through the beauty of music.”

Powerful Beauty Stage Appeals Most Powerful Opera

Author:John Philip Sousa

“Since I was eight years old. I didn't have a TV, so comic books were definitely my television, my soap operas, and all that.”

Years Book Television Tvs Eight Comic Opera Comic Book Soap Soap Operas

Author:Method Man

“A cabaret song has got to be written - for the middle voice, ideally - because you've got to hear the wit of the words. And a cabaret song gives the singer room to act, more even than an opera singer.”

Giving Song Voice Rooms Written Middle Singers Wit Opera Opera Singers Cabaret

Author:James Fenton

“I've often said that the only thing I can change with magick is myself. I believe that. Whatever changes I wish to effect with magick, the first and only thing that will be directly changed by my magical operation will be me. Once I am changed, then the new changed me will then somehow affect or attract the desired object of my operation.”

Firsts Believe Said I Can Self I Believe Wish Effects Objects Changed Operations Opera

Book:Low Magick: It's All In Your Head ... You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is

Source: Low Magick: It's All In Your Head ... You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is

“The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself”

Firsts Art Opera Career Success

Author:Nellie Melba

“Even in today's opera world, the position of the black tenor is problematic.”

World Today Black Position Opera Tenors

Author:Bobby Short

“I'm not going to spend two years on a film or four years on an opera if I don't feel like I can put my own self into it. That doesn't mean it has to be about myself.”

Ifs Feels Years Mean I Can Two Self Film My Own Four Two Years Four Years Opera Nasty

Author:Julie Taymor

“The opera isn't over until the fat lady sings.”

Fats Opera

Author:Dick Motta

“Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out.”

Ifs Feels Subjects Opera Composer

Author:Gian Carlo Menotti

“The opera ghost really existed”

Ghost Opera

Book:The Phantom of the Opera By Gaston Leroux

Source: The Phantom of the Opera By Gaston Leroux

“In opera, there is always too much singing.”

Funny Music Too Much Musician Singing Musical Piano Opera Piano Music Opera Singing

Author:Claude Debussy

“What's difficult to understand about German opera? It's always the same. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love, girl gets devoured by horrible winged creature with claws.”

Fall Girl Difficult Boys Creatures Falling In Love Horrible Opera Claws Boy Girl Boy Meets Girl

Book:Susan Wiggs The Calhoun Chronicles Books 4-5: Enchanted Afternoon\A Summer Affair

Source: Susan Wiggs The Calhoun Chronicles Books 4-5: Enchanted Afternoon\A Summer Affair

“The real exertion in the case of an opera singer lies not so much in her singing as in her acting of a role, for nearly every modern opera makes great dramatic and physical demands.”

Real Lying Acting Roles Cases Modern Demand Singing Singers Dramatic Opera Exertion Opera Singers Opera Singing

Author:Maria Jeritza

“As far as I was concerned the important thing was that the music was getting the attention as well as me so it was always a great way to get more of the public to connect with classical music, and opera particularly.”

Way Wells Important Attention Concerned Important Things Opera Classical Music

Author:Lesley Garrett

“I performed in Sydney some years ago for the Sydney Festival and I am just so pleased to be returning to the wonderful Sydney Opera House and also performing in Melbourne for the first time.”

Years Firsts House Wonderful First Time Years Ago Performing Opera Festivals Sydney Melbourne Opera House

Author:Lesley Garrett

“I would just like to say that opera is no longer about fat people in breastplates shattering wine glasses.”

People Wine Glasses Fats Opera Wine Glass Shattering Eyeglasses Fat People

Author:Lesley Garrett

“To me, the appeal of opera lies in the fact that a myriad of singers and instruments, each possessed of different qualities of voice and sound, against the backdrop of a grand stage and beautiful costumes, come together in one complete and impressive drama.”

Different Facts Together Beautiful Lying Sound Voice Quality Stage Drama Instruments Singers Appeals Opera Possessed Costumes Impressive Backdrop

Book:Japan and ASEAN in East Asia: A Sincere and Open Partnership

Source: Japan and ASEAN in East Asia: A Sincere and Open Partnership

“In how many lives does love really play a dominant part? The average taxpayer is no more capable of the grand passion than of a grand opera.”

Love Life Doe Play Passion Capable Average Opera Dominant Taxpayers

Book:Without Prejudice

Source: Without Prejudice

“OPERA, n. A play representing life in another world, whose inhabitants have no speech but song, no motions but gestures and no postures but attitudes.”

World Life Play Song Attitude Speech Opera Gestures Representing Posture Another World

Book:The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“I love to play. I love, opera, hiking and museums. The one thing I don't do is sit. I have a tremendous amount of energy.”

Play Energy One Thing Amount Museums Opera Hiking

Author:Alan Dershowitz

“It's like telling Mozart that there are too many notes in an opera. Which one do you want us to take out?”

Want Notes Aviation Opera Want U Airline

Author:Gordon Bethune

“I've never had any feeling of disconnection between the classical theater, or the contemporary theater, or musical theater, or the thing that we call opera.”

Feelings Theater Musical Contemporary Opera Musical Theater Disconnection

Author:Trevor Nunn

“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.”

Firsts Home Father Grew Grew Up Jazz African American Contracts Opera Classical Music Metropolitan

Author:Bobby McFerrin

“There's an opera out on the turnpike, there's a ballet being fought out in the alley.”

Song Ballet Opera Alleys

Author:Bruce Springsteen

“We would never get away from it. ... It's bad enough as it is, but with the wireless telephone one could be called up at the opera, in church, in our beds. Where could one be free from interruption?”

Enough Science Church Bed Get Away Opera Predictions Telephones Interruptions Wireless

Author:Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin

“Opera stars know that biology is destiny. Sometime in their 50s or early 60s, the powerful, flexible and ultimately mysterious instrument that has been the source of their artistry frays, cracks and disappears.”

Knows Has Beens Stars Powerful Destiny Source Instruments Disappear Mysterious Biology Cracks Opera Flexible Artistry Fray

Author:Michael A. Walsh

“When I have been unhappy, I have heard an opera... and it seemed the shrieking of winds; when I am happy, a sparrow's chirp is delicious to me. But it is not the chirp that makes me happy, but I that make it sweet.”

Has Beens Destiny Heard Sweet Wind Unhappy Opera Delicious Make Me Happy Sparrows

Book:The Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton

Source: The Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton

“Our mistake, you see, was to write interminable large operas, which had to fill an entire evening. And now along comes someone with a one or two-act opera without all that pompous nonsense - that was a happy reform.”

Writing Two Mistake Evening Reform Nonsense Opera Pompous

Author:Giuseppe Verdi

“If a thing isn't worth saying, you sing it.”

Ifs Funny Belief Humorous Opera

Author:Pierre Beaumarchais

“The most intelligent inspection of any number of fine paintings will not make the observer a painter, nor will listening to a number of operas make the hearer a musician, but good judges of music and painting may so be formed. Chess differs from these. The intelligent perusal of fine games cannot fail to make the reader a better player and a better judge of the play of others.”

May Play Games Numbers Learning Player Failing Painting Judging Listening Fine Reader Musician Intelligent Chess Painter Opera Observers Inspection Good Judges

Author:Emanuel Lasker

“I'm completely happy not having children. I mean, everybody does not have to live in the same way. And as somebody said, "Everybody with a womb doesn't have to have a child any more than everybody with vocal cords has to be an opera singer."”

Way Mean Children Doe Said Singers Opera Womb Vocal Cords Having Children Opera Singers Vocal Cords Childlessness

Author:Gloria Steinem

“You were born to rock, you'll never be an opera star.”

Song Stars Born Rocks Opera

Author:Neil Young

“Some may say that I couldn't sing, but no one can say that I didn't sing.”

May Singing Singers Opera Vocal Vocalist Opera Singers

Author:Florence Foster Jenkins

“I was interested in opera and it seemed to me that the only possible theatre for contemporary opera would be television. So I started working towards a kind of television kind of opera.”

Kind Would Be Television Theatre Contemporary Opera

Author:Robert Ashley

“Hey yogurt, if you're so cultured, how come I never see you at the opera?”

Ifs Hey Opera Yogurt

Author:Stephen Colbert

“Opera is when a tenor and soprano want to make love, but are prevented from doing so by a baritone.”

Want Opera Making Love Tenors Sopranos Baritones

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world...plant a plant, walk the dogs, read a real book, go to the opera.”

World Giving Long Book Real Enough Walks Dog Computer Plant Screens Flats More Time Real World Opera Glowing Computer Screen Rectangles Real Books

Author:Edward Tufte

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Opera Quotes