Air Quote by Robert Burns

It is not always a matter of wild ovations and legendary performances. Sometimes you are just happy to get through an opera without trouble.

— Luciano Pavarotti

Dare to be honest and fear no labor. ... Opera is where a man gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.

— Robert Burns

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

— W. H. Auden

That is the operatic problem; the singer must keep up a big head of steam while trying to appear secretive, or seductive, or consumptive.…

— Robertson Davies

“By the sweet power of music: therefore the poet did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones and floods; since nought so stockish, hard and…

— William Shakespeare

Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings.

— Anonymous

“In Schubert, for instance, say, in Wiegenleid D867 or Der Wanderer and den Mond D870 one finds perhaps the ultimate listening experience, the composer…

— Andrew Ashdown

“No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”

— W. H. Auden

“The Man who has not Music in his Soul, Or is not touch’d with Concord of sweet Sounds, Is fit for Treason, Stratagems, and…

— Jon Meacham

Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and instead of bleeding, he sings.

— Anonymous

“The Working Song by Breton Braley Oh, we're sick to death of the style of song That's only a sort of a simpering song,…

— Berton Braley

“Opera has the power to warn you that you have wasted your life. You haven't acted on your desires. You've suffered a stunted, vicarious…

— Wayne Koestenbaum