Opera Quotes - Page 6

• If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves. The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Br?nnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.

  W. H. Auden

  Real, Feelings, Quality

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• If I weren't reasonably placid, I don't think I could cope with this sort of life. To be a diva, you've got to be absolutely like a horse.

  Joan Sutherland

  Horse, Women, Thinking

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• That's nothing - my alarm clock is set for eight.

  Groucho Marx

  Eight, Alarms, Clock

  "Fictional character: Otis B. Driftwood". "A Night at the Opera", www.imdb.com. Npvember 1, 1935.

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• When I invite a woman to dinner, I expect her to look at my face. That's the price she has to pay.

  Groucho Marx

  Inspiration, Pay, Faces

  "Fictional character: Otis B. Driftwood". "A Night at the Opera", 1935.

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• 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."

  Gloria Steinem

  Children, Mean, Way

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I walked out of the theater and started crying. My wife asked me, 'Why are you crying?' I said, 'Because I can't do that.' I didn't know how he did it. I've never seen anything like that. It's like this feat, this Rodin sculpture to me. It's like hearing an opera singer and the tears go down your face because it's not human what they're doing. It's like sounds of heaven.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Wife, Heaven, Tears

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• Roy Orbison was one of the genuinely nicest persons I've ever known. With one of the most beautiful voices in the history of recorded music he could easily have had an opera star's ego, but he was one of the humblest, kindest, sweetest human beings to grace this planet. This in spite of the enormous tragedies in his life. A brave, beautiful blessing of a man.

  Kris Kristofferson

  Music, Beautiful, Stars

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• A Librettist is a mere drudge in the world of opera.

  Robertson Davies

  World, Mere

  Robertson Davies (1999). “Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre”, Penguin Group USA

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• The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

  H. L. Mencken

  Funny, Music, House

  1925 Letter to Isaac Goldberg.

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

  Gian Carlo Menotti

  Composer, Feels, Subjects

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• The trouble with the opera is there's always to much singing.

  Claude Debussy

  Singing, Trouble

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• I was more of a light opera singer, not really much of a lounge singer.

  Melinda Clarke

  Light, Singers, Opera Singers

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I have witnessed and greatly enjoyed the first act of everything which Wagner created, but the effect on me has always been so powerful that one act was quite sufficient; whenever I have witnessed two acts I have gone away physically exhausted; and whenever I have ventured an entire opera the result has been the next thing to suicide.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Sarcastic, Suicide

  Mark Twain (1924). “Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review”, p.175, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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• Above all, I am an opera singer. This is how people will remember me.

  Luciano Pavarotti

  People, Singers, Remember

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

  Bobby Short

  Black, World, Today

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• I have never heard enough classical music to be able to enjoy it; & the simple truth is, I detest it. Not mildly, but will all my heart. To me an opera is the very climax & cap-stone of the absurd, the fantastic the unjustifiable. I hate the very name of opera - partly because of the nights of suffering I have endured in its presence, & partly because I want to love it and can't.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Hate, Humorous

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• But I won't deprive myself of singing opera as long as my voice follows.

  Placido Domingo

  Sight, Voice, Long

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• Later, I even appeared in a Rock Opera with Richard Gere.

  Barry Bostwick

  Rocks

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• Let us be clear: I take ten times more money for a concert than for an opera performance.

  Placido Domingo

  Concerts, More Money, Clear

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• Like an opera singer, I am able to sing out my song in paint.

  Tony Curtis

  Song, Singers, Able

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• Whenever I go to an opera, I leave my sense and reason at the door with my half-guinea, and deliver myself up to my eyes and my ears.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Eye, Doors, Ears

  Lord Chesterfield (1998). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.250, Oxford Paperbacks

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• In a film score, the last thing you want to do is take people out of the movie. The music is secondary. In opera, the music is the main event.

  Stewart Copeland

  People, Events, Want

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• Theatre can transform a child's life, just as an early cultural experience whether with opera, ballet, music or art is a wonderful thing because it opens the door to a life-long experience, a life-long enjoyment.

  Michael Morpurgo

  Art, Children, Doors

  Source: www.altblackpool.co.uk

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• Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music.

  Rick Riordan

  Running, People, Naked

  Rick Riordan (2006). “The lightning thief”

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• Brains cause technology, society, art, science, soap operas, sin. A remarkable set of effects for such a small chunk of coagulated atoms.

  Colin McGinn

  Art, Technology, Brain

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