Quotes on Opera

I change the language with which I use my voice. In opera, I know I have an orchestra behind me; I have to communicate to people very far from me.

I used to think that, given enough goodwill, anybody would be able to 'get' any music, no matter how distant the culture from which it came. And then I heard Chinese opera.

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

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."

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

People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it.

My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know his lurking-places, to attend all the oratorios, the operas in nature.

Commercial jazz, soap opera, pulp fiction, comic strips, the movies set the images, mannerisms, standards, and aims of the urban masses. In one way or another, everyone is equal before these cultural machines; like technology itself, the mass media are nearly universal in their incidence and appeal. They are a kind of common denominator, a kind of scheme for pre-scheduled, mass emotions.

When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I'm slipping.

Dedication: My thanks to the people who showed me that opera was stranger than I could imagine. I can best repay their kindness by not mentioning their names here.