I love Ballo, which is as nearly perfect an opera as one is likely to find.
Georg SoltiMemoirs (Knopf), 1997
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Opera
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You're not just conducting notes; you're conducting words.
Antonio PappanoInterview, The New York Times (republished by Artdaily), September 2024
In fact, what I'm doing is entering tradition, what I'm doing is finally respecting the tradition.
Peter SellarsBill Moyers' World of Ideas, 18 March 1990
Mezza voce is just a concentration of the full voice, and it requires, after all, as much breath support.
Enrico CarusoCaruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing (Caruso's section), Metropolitan Company, New York, 'Faults to be Corrected', 1909
Asked what it takes to sing Wagner's Isolde
Comfortable shoes.
Birgit NilssonWidely reported reply when asked the chief requirement for singing Isolde
Verdi is not oom-pah-pah!
Riccardo MutiInterview with Aldo Cazzullo, Corriere della Sera, July 2021
If you take the trouble to really listen with your soul and with your ears – and I say soul and ears because the mind must work, but not too much also – you will find every gesture there. And it is all true, you know.
Maria CallasInterview with Lord Harewood for the BBC, Paris, April 1968 (The Callas Conversations, EMI DVD, 2004)
On her husband, the conductor Richard Bonynge
Richard had decided long before I agreed with him that I was a coloratura.
Joan SutherlandProfile, The New York Times Magazine, 1961
In this country, I've observed that despite all our talk of wanting to bring in younger audiences, opera is something that you come to… later.
Antonio PappanoInterview with Norman Lebrecht, The Spectator, 29 February 2020
On leaving the Royal Opera House after 22 years
This place has been my sanctuary. I almost live here.
Antonio PappanoInterview with Mark Pullinger, Bachtrack, 4 June 2024
On the répétiteur, the rehearsal pianist and vocal coach
For me, it's the key role in any opera production. Without the pianist, you can't do anything – you can't coach, you can't do rehearsals.
Speranza ScappucciInterview with Mark Pullinger, Bachtrack, 17 March 2026
If a singer has no conscience in his performance he is never nervous, but full of assurance.
Enrico CarusoCaruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing (Caruso's section), Metropolitan Company, New York, 'Good Diction a Requisite', 1909
On being called the greatest Verdi tenor
They give me great pleasure, but I've never been ambitious. Perhaps courageous.
Carlo BergonziInterview in Avvenire, translated on Gramilano (12 December 2010)
To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.
Original (Italian): Copiare il vero può essere una buona cosa, ma inventare il vero è meglio, molto meglio.
Giuseppe VerdiLetter to Clara Maffei, 20 October 1876
Long live the politico-satirical-parodistic opera!
Richard StraussLetter to Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 5 June 1916; A Working Friendship (Vienna House, 1961), p. 251
Melody and harmony should be nothing but means in the hand of the artist for making Music; and if a day comes when people no longer talk of melody or harmony, or of German or Italian schools, or of past or future, etc etc etc, then perhaps the reign of art will begin.
Original (Italian): La melodia e l'armonia non devono essere che mezzi nella mano dell'artista per fare della Musica, e se verrà un giorno in cui non si parlerà più né di melodia né di armonia né di scuole tedesche, italiane, né di passato né di avvenire ecc. ecc. ecc. allora forse comincierà il regno dell'arte.
Giuseppe VerdiLetter to Opprandino Arrivabene, 14 July 1875
We are all soon forgotten; five minutes after I leave the platform for the last time I shall be forgotten.
Janet BakerFull Circle (her journal of her last opera season), 1982
I think every opera project must start with a conductor, then a stage director and a cast.
Antonio PappanoInterview with Thibault Vicq, Opera Online, 19 August 2021
I could sing Parsifal many times every year, but I don't … It's too precious to just use it as a vehicle to make money.
Jonas KaufmannInterview with Mark Pullinger, Gramophone, April 2024
The music of Verdi moves you, helps you and comforts you, because it speaks to men about men, not about superheroes.
Riccardo MutiMuti Conducts Verdi (documentary)
On his work with young musicians
I think it is so very important to help young, talented musicians to develop their gifts and to become part of the world of great music, and I believe that those of us who are in a position to help have an obligation to do this.
Plácido DomingoInterview, Virtuosos, 2021
I always said if I will be able to sing the way I know it should be done, I will be the greatest singer in the world. Because I know exactly what I have to do it. Except then I cannot do it.
Plácido DomingoInterview with Scott Pelley, CBS News (60 Minutes), 2004
Some people say: 'Oh, I think I am going to try singing now.' I think, don't even bother. Don't even start.
Kiri Te KanawaInterview with Ben Lawrence, The Daily Telegraph, 30 May 2017
I started singing when I was a young girl, but my family wanted me to study piano, but my overwhelming need to express myself with my voice made me choose the art of singing.
Renata TebaldiAs quoted in The Guardian (obituary, December 2004)