Opera Quotes

• An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house.

  Maria Callas

  Long, Imagination, House

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• I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts.

  Franco Zeffirelli

  Art, Work, Hands

  International Herald Tribune, March 21, 1990.

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

  W. H. Auden

  Funny, Music, People

  Quoted in Time, 29 Dec 1961.

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

  Lesley Garrett

  Wine, Glasses, People

  "Soprano soundtrack" by Will Hodgkinson, www.theguardian.com. December 19, 2003.

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

  Luciano Pavarotti

  People, Want, Messages

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• Opera is a beautiful and important diversion for me.

  Luciano Pavarotti

  Beautiful, Important, Diversion

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• I love Italian opera - it's so reckless. Damn Wagner, and his bellowings at Fate and death. Damn Debussy, and his averted face. I like the Italians who run all on impulse, and don't care about their immortal souls, and don't worry about the ultimate.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Love, Running, Fate

  D. H. Lawrence, James T. Boulton (2002). “The Letters of D. H. Lawrence”, p.247, Cambridge University Press

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• In opera, as with any performing art, to be in great demand and to command high fees you must be good of course, but you must also be famous. The two are different things.

  Luciano Pavarotti

  Art, Two, Different

  "Pavarotti: My World". Book by Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, 1995.

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• To tell you the truth, I never listen to opera at home.

  Lesley Garrett

  Home

  "Soprano soundtrack" by Will Hodgkinson, www.theguardian.com. December 19, 2003.

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

  Freddie Mercury

  Music, Rocks, Groups

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• I would rather undergo a vasectomy via Weed Whacker than attend an opera.

  Dave Barry

  Funny, Weed, Humorous

  Dave Barry (2010). “Dave Barry Talks Back”, p.147, Crown Archetype

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• Opera? Just what the world needs: more fat women screaming.

  Peter Boyle

  Needs, World, Fats

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• The opera tells the story with all the built-in contradictions and from many different angles.

  Harrison Birtwistle

  Different, Stories, Contradiction

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• Music conveys moods and images. Even in opera, where plots deal with the structure of destiny, it's music, not words, that provides power.

  Marcel Marceau

  Destiny, Plot, Mood

  US News & World Report, February 23, 1987.

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• Opera is one of the most important art forms. It should be listened to and appreciated by everyone.

  Luciano Pavarotti

  Art, Important, Appreciated

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• One can't judge Wagner's opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don't intend to hear it a second time.

  Gioachino Rossini

  Time, Judging, Hearing

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• Mozart has written opera, symphony, sacred and chamber music - not to mention his piano and violin concerti.

  Neville Marriner

  Symphony, Piano, Violin

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• It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

  Carlisle Floyd

  Art, Relevant, Expressive

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• I enjoy listening to opera at home, occasionally, but I would much rather see it than just listen to it.

  Sam Waterston

  Home, Listening, Enjoy

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• It's in my genes. My mother was an opera singer. I'm clearly dramatic.

  Mariah Carey

  Mother, Singers, Dramatic

  "Larry King Live", www.cnn.com. November 04, 2009.

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• I was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang.

  Ruben Blades

  Mother, Kids, Singing

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• 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 the '30s and '40s were like

  Parker Posey

  School, Acting, Done

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• I'd hate this to get out but I really like opera.

  Ford Frick

  Hate

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• I was on a soap opera before that for three years, where I was the nicest guy on earth.

  Ray Liotta

  Years, Guy, Three

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• I was the first movie star to plunge into night-time soap opera.

  Dorothy Malone

  Stars, Night, Soap

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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