Opera Quotes: top 100 famous quotes about Opera

Opera Quotes & Sayings

Happy to read and share the best inspirational Opera quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes.

Later, I even appeared in a Rock Opera with Richard Gere. — Barry Bostwick

I'm not sure any narrative model has been more important for me than Benjamin Britten's chamber operas. — Garth Greenwell

A resolution to attend theatres or operas is an absolute disqualification for Holy Orders. — Samuel Wilberforce

The dictatorship is like an aria that never becomes an opera. — Emilia Pardo Bazan

I think the power of opera has been shifted from the music to the director, because this is a very visual age that we live in. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Snarling like a chainsaw trying to sing opera — Seanan McGuire

I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels. — Lou Reed

There's no rational reason why opera should exist. It's expensive, time consuming. Yet in some shape or other it has always existed. — Jake Heggie

When you are confronted with an opera, you have to keep an eye on everything: the musicians, the chorus, the ballet, the singers, the staging. — Placido Domingo

Tea, opera and poetry should not be missed - longevity depends on one's mental cultivation. — Anchee Min

Everyone loves a murder, eh? Villains in the night, tragic heroines splattered in gore. Better than an opera. Bloody vultures. — Viola Carr

The Opera reminds me of my tax audit. It was in a language I didn't understand. And it ended in tragedy. — Jeff MacNelly

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

Wow this place is really big isn't it? They must do proper stuff here, like opera and all that ... shite. — Dylan Moran

I had reached up and pulled the castle of dreams down around him. — Susan Kay

To leave a whisper of myself in the world, my ghost, a magna opera of words. — Bernardine Evaristo

Dance stories, unlike those in opera, are usually simple. — Robert Gottlieb

We used to have front-row seats for the Grand Opera House pantomime every year, and once the dame May McFettridge got me up on-stage. — Rachel Tucker

A Man lives off his head.
His head won't see him through.
Inspect your own
What lives on that?
At most, a louse or two ... — Bertolt Brecht

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. — Noel Coward

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

Shameless self-publicity works, of course: living your life as a soap opera. — Chris Lowe

I became a set designer for opera. — Maurice Sendak

I would rather undergo a vasectomy via Weed Whacker than attend an opera. — Dave Barry

My life is a soap opera. — C.E. Starkweather

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match. — Bruce Beresford

If work isn't rooted in comedy, people will turn from it, or they'll use it like soap opera. — Israel Horovitz

There's no half-singing in the shower, you're either a rock star or an opera diva — Josh Groban

Don't go getting offended my friend, I have much worse things to say to you.-Ad'Dam, Journey from Atremes — Riley Amos Westbrook

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

...if you want to know what my ultimate goal is in all this, I can tell you in one simple sentence. I want to take the stick out of opera's ass. — Cindy Irish

You must know that I am made of death, from head to foot, and it is a corpse who loves you and adores you and will never, never leave you! — Gaston Leroux

My poor sister was forced to be in the plays that I would write. We would go to my grandma's retirement building and perform 'Phantom of the Opera.' — Lindy Booth

New York. It's home to opera, Broadway, museums, the ballet and orchestra - everything that I love. The most real people in the world live there. — Kristin Chenoweth

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

You couldn't tell if she was dressed for an opera or an operation. — Irvin S. Cobb

I like folk songs, but ten horses couldn't bring me to a concert or an opera. — Fritz Lang

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

If God drives a car, He'd drive a 1973 Ford LTD Brougham sedan with a claret-colored vinyl roof, with oxblood leather upholstery and an opera window. — Douglas Coupland

I love rock and opera, and I love musical theater, and I don't want to lose any of that. — Lauren Worsham

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. — Andrea Bocelli

My family was very musical. My brother is an opera singer; my parents both sang. — Blythe Danner

Love is rebellious bird that nobody can tame, and it's all in vain to call it if it chooses to refuse. — Georges Bizet

When an opera star sings her head off, she usually improves her appearance. — Victor Borge

The kingdom of God is a crash-bang opera: the king is dramatic, demanding, and unavoidable. — Alan Hirsch

The number of opera houses around the world and the high attendance rates show that opera an art form that is more popular than ever. — Bruce Beresford

I'm not very well organized unless I'm plugged into a structure like the opera or a movie. When I'm doing that, I have to be organized. — David Cronenberg

Opera - above and beyond anything else - is about the music, and it should be about the music. — Sondra Radvanovsky

Even the Beatles lived their lives as a soap opera. — Chris Lowe

Life is an X-rated soap opera. — John Irving

Opera is everything rolled into one - music, theater, the dance, color and voices and theatrical illusions. — Sarah Caldwell

You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.
— Maria Callas

I wish the opera was every night. It is, of all entertainments, the sweetest and most delightful. Some of the songs seemed to melt my very soul. — Fanny Burney

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

My favorite type of music to sing would be between R and B and opera. — Stefano Langone

At 7, I was at the barre and dancing at folk festivals. Then I was a student with the ballet school of the Metropolitan Opera. — Maria Karnilova

I love to conduct opera. — Zubin Mehta

The audience is requested not to refrain from talking during the overture. Otherwise they will know all the tunes before the opera begins. — Ralph Vaughan Williams

Cincinnatians support a symphony, an opera, a ballet, museums, many galleries and theater groups. — Bill Dedman

Music helps to forget
This forsaken tomb,
That is my abode
Cellars down
Far below
Under the ground, ... — E.A. Bucchianeri

Why the hell do women always have to bring back up? It's not as if I'm going to molest her at the opera. — Poppet

I see a symphony - and sometimes a grand opera - of elements that can be coordinated and harmonized to create a fantastic and memorable experience. — Marc J. Sievers

I tend to sing opera and showtunes in the shower. I don't know why, but when I get in the shower I turn into this big fat opera lady. — Ester Dean

Hey you! I told you to slow that nag down! Because of you, I almost heard the opera! — Groucho Marx

So, I lived at the Beijing Opera, I ate there, I learned a craft. And the money we made went into the company. — John Lone

I sing a mixture of everything from opera, folk music, Broadway. It's a mix of things. — Katherine Jenkins

I've never been to the opera; I've only seen opera on DVD. — Gemma Arterton

The only thing altruism will get you here is a boot stomping on your head. — Henry Mosquera

I love classical music and often listen to symphonies or opera in the morning. — William Mapother

True beauty lies not upon gilded veneers,
But found in the soul within. — E.A. Bucchianeri

I don't know why it is, but women who have anything to do with Opera, even if they're only studying for it, always appear to run to surplus poundage. — P.G. Wodehouse

The most lively fancy aided by the strongest description cannot equal the reality of the opera. — John Marshall

At its best, no art form is more thrilling than grand opera, yet none is at greater risk of following the dinosaurs down the cold road to extinction. — Terry Teachout

He was a throwback to a lady's old romantic notion of how a man should act. [Giovanni Tempesta] — Vincent B. "Chip" LoCoco

If humanity is annihilated because we were too busy squabbling with one another to manage a proper stand, we probably deserve the annihilation. — G.S. Jennsen

I think the opera is one of the great cultural jewels of Los Angeles. — Eli Broad

I beg you, help me, in angelic charity,
Pray my efforts will reflect your mastery! — E.A. Bucchianeri

It's like telling Mozart that there are too many notes in an opera. Which one do you want us to take out? — Gordon Bethune

And my singing, I don't think I could sing Wagner or opera, but I could probably carry a tune. I was in a musical once, but it was never performed. — Wallace Shawn

I want you to take off the mask, Erik, do you hear me? I want you to take it off right now.
-Luciana — Susan Kay

I did 'Doubt' as a film, a play and an opera. — John Patrick Shanley

I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff, I love classical music, and I needed a time-out. — Maurice Sendak

I love to play. I love, opera, hiking and museums. The one thing I don't do is sit. I have a tremendous amount of energy. — Alan Dershowitz

War makes monsters of us all. But what happens to those of us who no longer wish to be monsters? — Kameron Hurley

I was the first movie star to plunge into night-time soap opera. — Dorothy Malone

It would be great to do a rock opera, but using more low-fi technology. I love shitty-sounding records. — Billie Joe Armstrong

I'm not trying to be mean,' Casamir says.
'Intent doesn't always matter. — Kameron Hurley

Why was there never an opera that ended with a soprano who was free? — Alexander Chee

There's an opera out on the turnpike, there's a ballet being fought out in the alley. — Bruce Springsteen

Wednesday a junior came to me, and told me I was to be hazed as I left the Opera House Friday night. — Richard H. Davis

Wherever you walk, stand or sit, do it with self-confidence and be firmly convinced: I am a singer! Being tentative is one of the deadly theatre sins. — Marita Knobel

Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera. — Mason Cooley

My parents were opera singers and voice teachers, so growing up, I admired musicians and dancers. — Sandra Bullock

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. — Henry David Thoreau

Unfortunately, opera engagements tend to be made five years in advance, and I don't really agree with that. — Danielle De Niese

Pity that child who was born near Rouen,
His only crime, to arrive deformed. — E.A. Bucchianeri

I studied classical opera, so I was always singing in Italian and German and French. — Wang Leehom

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one. — Jean De La Bruyere

I feel like it's a real shame that my generation doesn't make an appearance at the opera. — James Gray

As a teenager I studied opera, believe it or not. But I just couldn't catch on to it. — Karen Black