I would just like to say that opera is no longer about fat people in breastplates shattering wine glasses.
I have no desire to become a crossover artiste, singing with microphones. I believe in opera; that it is something that young people would love if they had a chance to hear it.
Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.
I always believed 'The Fly' to be a classic opera story. It's a tale of love and death, true love surviving in the face of physical decay and ultimate sacrifice.
As far as I was concerned the important thing was that the music was getting the attention as well as me so it was always a great way to get more of the public to connect with classical music, and opera particularly.
In how many lives does love really play a dominant part? The average taxpayer is no more capable of a 'grand passion' than of a grand opera.
Reality TV has totally destroyed soap operas. They're gone. They used to be the biggest thing in the world - they're gone.
It's better to be on a soap opera to renew your career and following than to be on any other medium.
I feel like it's a real shame that my generation doesn't make an appearance at the opera.
I think that baseball games are like soap operas. If you watch five in a row, you know enough to get hooked.
People don't want to pay 8 or 9 dollars to go see a problem that they have in their life, on screen. They pay to get away from that. That's why they watch soap operas.
I graduated from high school early so I could move to New York to do 'A Little Night Music' out of the New York City Opera.
Do you think Duke Ellington didn't listen to Debussy? Louis Armstrong loved opera, did you know that? Name me a jazz pianist who wasn't influenced by European music!
One of the problems that we face through the media attention that these artists receive is that there has been an awful lot of talk about opera and classical music being elite and being for an elitist group.
You listen to Handel operas, right? And there are a thousand of them, right? And they all sound alike. If I look back on my work, maybe it's the same thing.
In 1857, Bizet departed for Rome and spent three years there. He studied the landscape, the culture, Italian literature and art. Musically he studied the scores of the great masters. At the end of the first year he was asked to submit a religious wor...
I never thought about becoming a professional singer, but I am in touch with Bono about releasing a musical movie. It will be about an Irish band during the '70s who are looking for fortune in Las Vegas. I should play the singer of the band but I don...
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[after giving Marla a breast exam] Marla Singer: I wish I could return the favor. Narrator: There's not a lot of breast cancer in the men in my family. Marla Singer: I could check your prostate.
[Alvy has killed two spiders] Alvy Singer: I did it. I killed 'em both. [Annie starts crying] Alvy Singer: What's the matter? What are you sad about? What did you want me to do? Capture 'em and rehabilitate 'em?
Alvy Singer: I think, I think there's too much burden placed on the orgasm, you know, to make up for empty areas in life. Pam: Who said that? Alvy Singer: It may have been Leopold and Loeb.
