Opera Quotes · Page 12

Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it.

— Hannah More

I loved him, but love isn't enough. All the fairy tales, the romance novels, the soap operas; they're all lies. Love does…

— Laurell K. Hamilton

I vowed I would never do a commercial, or a soap opera - both of which I did as soon as I…

— Kevin Kline

The only thing I daydreamed about was being an opera singer. But I was so skinny and so pathetic that that sort…

— Patti Smith

'Next To Normal' is rock music. It's a rock opera. That, definitely, has a place in popular music.

— Alice Ripley

If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I'd pay for riding lessons and take his gun away.

— W. H. Auden

I had this exceptional classical music voice. If I'd followed a true path for my talent, I would have ended up being…

— Lesley Manville

I want to carve out a serious period of time to focus on the next opera without any distractions. And to do…

— Rufus Wainwright

Rather than opera, football is more like ballet or a chess game. You can really see it in a team like Arsenal,…

— Marcus du Sautoy

Because comedy is cheap to put on: if you've got a play or an opera, there's a whole load of people and…

— Arthur Smith

I didn't grow up imagining myself as an opera composer. Only once in my entire adolescence did I attend an opera. I…

— John Adams

I was raised on piano and saxophone and jazz music for ten or twelve years. Before I even picked up a bass.…

— Matt Snell

I performed in Sydney some years ago for the Sydney Festival and I am just so pleased to be returning to the…

— Lesley Garrett

I've played football with George Best, the greatest footballer that ever lived. That doesn't make me a footballer. And I've sung a…

— Ian Gillan

I like soap opera acting. If it's done really well, there's nothing better. It's old school. It's like what those melodramas in…

— Parker Posey

I could hire every producer in Hollywood - 2,000 producers, let's say - and they couldn't come up with all the soap…

— Jerry Jones

I went out to testify in front of the Ways and Means Committee out in Congress on open free trade to China.…

— Jesse Ventura

Flawless . . . Tightly choreographed . . . Shipstead gains entry into exclusive worlds and trains her opera glasses on private…

— Maureen Corrigan

Little fussy Otto, in his red-lined black opera cloak with pockets for all his gear, his shiny black shoes, his carefully cut…

— Terry Pratchett

I was shown into a room. A red room. Red wallpaper, red curtains, red carpet. They said it was a sitting-room, but…

— Hugh Laurie

One of my sisters wanted to be an opera singer. So, we spent a few dollars to try to train her, because…

— Pat Cooper

I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been…

— Mark Twain

“Handel's yearning for independence from the traditional chains of patronage and his persistence in monitoring his productions resulted with unique developments concerning…

— E.A. Bucchianeri

In management terms, directing opera certainly prepares you for a film set: the magnitude of it, the experts in other fields that…

— Phyllida Lloyd

It's the economics, that's why opera is not dying but gets more and more difficult to put on.

— Christoph Waltz

I want to reach as many people as possible with the message of music, of wonderful opera.

— Luciano Pavarotti

If life is a soap opera you shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to get to the final credits.

— Michael Portillo

Poetry is all I write, whether for books or readings or for the National Theatre or for the opera house and concert…

— Tony Harrison

A practical way to travel between the stars is a must-have for space opera, and a sine qua non for our frequently…

— Seth Shostak

Italians are fantastic people, really. They can work you over in an alley while singing an opera.

— Don Rickles

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

— Bruce Springsteen

Everyone in my family is an artist. Both my parents are painters and my mom's an opera singer. I was never shown…

— Aleksa Palladino

I'd like to see a nude opera, because when they hit those high notes, I bet you can really see it in…

— Jack Handy

Premiering a new opera is probably one of the hardest things in the world to do, and opening nights of any opera…

— Rufus Wainwright

It was just as shocking for me to sing opera in a falsetto soprano in Germany.

— Klaus Nomi

Shameless self-publicity works, of course: living your life as a soap opera.

— Chris Lowe

Opera needs a major makeover; the large opera houses are too in thrall to their conservative patrons.

— Robert Lepage

I'm not glamorous, I don't have a look, I don't know anything about opera, I have no Italian, and I'm too old.

— Tyne Daly

You can make a debut in 25 operas. But to make a debut at the Metropolitan Opera is huge.

— Kristine Opolais

I seem to write an opera about every 20 years; if you live long enough you can write four operas. I finished…

— Virgil Thomson