Opera Quotes · Page 14

I think of myself as a realistic writer, not a creator of soap opera or melodrama.

— Joyce Maynard

In the early '80s when I came to London, I didn't like opera. I didn't know anything about it.

— Harry Enfield

The Hitch Hiker's Guide has not been an opera. It has however been a tapestry, if you count a woven bath towel…

— Douglas Adams

I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don't understand.

— Anonymous

It is not always a matter of wild ovations and legendary performances. Sometimes you are just happy to get through an opera…

— Luciano Pavarotti

WWE is a company that produces fiction. It's a soap opera that runs 52 weeks a year without reruns.

— Linda McMahon

“Giovanni always had music running through his head. Moments he experienced in life recalled for him scenes from operas. [Giovanni Tempesta]”

— Vincent B. Chip LoCoco

I never liked opera growing up. I always liked chamber music or solo music even more than orchestral music.

— Tod Machover

And an unstable childhood makes you appreciate calmness and not crave excitement. To spend a Saturday afternoon mopping your kitchen floor while…

— Curtis Sittenfeld

In opera, everyone's watching from a fixed viewpoint, and that really challenges you. Lighting, the sets, stage groupings, the music-but doesn't relate…

— Bruce Beresford

Britten's opera tends to see things in simpler terms. It portrays an Aschenbach who wants a richer form of sexual fulfillment, and…

— Philip Kitcher

Sometimes, going to see one opera is hard because you don't know the genre. Good opera is like good wine. There are…

— Susanna Phillips

Dedication: My thanks to the people who showed me that opera was stranger than I could imagine. I can best repay their…

— Terry Pratchett

I was playing in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as principal horn. I was there for some 15 years - one of the…

— Gunther Schuller

Cathedrals are built with pennies of the faithful. A great opera house also is a spiritual center, a temple of sorts, where…

— Eleanor Robson Belmont

Art has become more than painting, sculpture or music: art is more than Van Gogh painting a landscape or Wagner composing an…

— Paul Virilio

If I had the money, I would love to open up a movie theater that just played images and colors and beautiful…

— Peter Stormare

We have to make sure what we're doing is true - true as in life and not as in opera. The only…

— Charles Nelson Reilly

One good thing about a good book or a good film, or maybe even a song, I'm not a musician but I…

— Kleber Mendonca Filho

“In 1857, Bizet departed for Rome and spent three years there. He studied the landscape, the culture, Italian literature and art. Musically…

— Georges Bizet

Concurrently, while I was in school, while I was winning awards for acting, I was winning awards for singing, in high school.…

— Robert Davi

There's the beauty of the stage. I don't like filmed theater or opera because you're kind of playing soccer in a hockey…

— Christoph Waltz

There is a lot of propaganda about opera singers not being able to act. That's not necessarily true and hasn't been true…

— Jessye Norman

Museums just seem to have this borrowed cachet—if I want to seem cultural, I will design something cultural. I resist the idea…

— Thomas Heatherwick

If an opera cannot be played by an organ grinder, it's not going to achieve immortality.

— Thomas Beecham

As americans I think it's harder for us to have a relationship with opera because the access to it is so limited.

— Jacob Hashimoto

There was something in the bel canto, not just opera, but a certain style of Italian singing that I responded to deeply.

— Robert Davi

The Holocaust is not a cheap soap opera. The Holocaust is not a romantic novel. It is something else.

— Elie Wiesel

Once, the arts were opera, ballet, classical music, and everything else deemed highbrow.

— Melvyn Bragg

Are you implying that our relationship is like a Spanish soap opera?” “I’m not implying. I’m saying it.

— Ilona Andrews

I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with 'Porgy and Bess,' the opera. And I taught dance…

— Maya Angelou

I've never felt opera was a party I've been invited to, and maybe I've got a bit of a chip on my…

— John Tiffany

“To be happy to be sad and sad to be happy is to sing an echo in that beautiful language called Sorrow.”

— Criss Jami

We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my…

— Freddie Mercury

I love opera so much. I would never go back to doing it, but I love to listen - I'm grateful for…

— Ledisi

I think that both musicals and opera have a capacity to get to an inner emotional landscape.

— Julie Taymor

Almost everyone admits to hunger during the Opera… Hunger is so exalting that during a last act you practically levitate.

— Elizabeth Bowen

I studied opera, and when I left conservatory I told myself I would never sing in public again.

— Garth Greenwell

Everyone has their own taste: some like theatre, some don't, some like opera, some don't, some like pantomimes, and some don't.

— Clive Rowe

I dislike those people that see an opera and say "Oh, they can't act it. They just sing. It's boring." Lean back…

— Peter Stormare