Welcome to our curated collection of opera quotes, where the enchanting world of opera meets the power of words. Opera, with its grandeur and emotional depth, has captivated audiences for centuries, transcending cultural boundaries and touching the hearts of people around the globe. From the soaring arias of Verdi to the dramatic masterpieces of Wagner, opera has a unique ability to convey the full spectrum of human emotion, from love and passion to despair and triumph.
In this compilation, we’ve gathered a selection of quotes that celebrate the beauty, drama, and enduring appeal of opera. Whether you’re a seasoned opera aficionado or just discovering this magnificent art form, these quotes offer insight into the profound impact that opera has had on artists, musicians, and audiences throughout history. Join us on a journey through the lyrical landscapes of opera, where every word is a melody, and every note tells a story. Explore the passion, the intensity, and the sheer beauty of opera through the timeless words of those who have been moved by its magic.
Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian. H. L. Mencken
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. Bobby McFerrin
A great opera house isn’t run by a director, but by a great administrator. Steven Berkoff
I think people care. If not, why do so many people spend money going on vacations to see architecture? They go to the Parthenon, to Chartres, to the Sydney Opera House. They go to Bilbao… Something compels them, and yet we live surrounded by everything but great architecture. Frank Gehry
You can’t do opera when already from the 10th row you can only see little dolls on the stage. In such an enormous space you can’t put much faith in the personal presence of the individual singer, which is reflected in facial expressions, among other things. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
For sure, one moment really defined the path that I was to take in the future, and that was when I won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York in April of 1995. I had just turned 25 two days before the finals concert, and when I won, I had no idea how my life would change because of it. Sondra Radvanovsky
Italians are fantastic people, really. They can work you over in an alley while singing an opera. Don Rickles
Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process. Kenneth Clark
I kind of went into soap opera with ‘General Hospital’ in the ’80s. It’s like theater because every day it’s a new script, which really doesn’t have a beginning, middle or end like a play or a movie script. So you have to be on your toes and bring it every day. And you have to be spontaneous, which is really how I like to work. Jack Wagner
Opera can be exceptionally moving but can also be pompous. Matt Bellamy
It’s quite a famous story that takes place on Christmas Eve, and the Germans, French, and Scottish are trying to make peace one night and they bury their dead and they play football. I play a German opera singer, in German, which I never have so I am really excited about that. Diane Kruger
I was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang. Ruben Blades
I think Mozart’s operas ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and ‘Don Giovanni’ are the two most perfect ever written. The music is magical. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
One of the most wonderful memories in my life was when I sang at the Opera House in Sydney. I will never forget that. It is one of the most beautiful Houses I have ever sung in my life. Nana Mouskouri
For me, few things are more compelling than watching a great opera. David Rubenstein
My mom was an opera singer, and she gave up her career to raise a family. But she also taught my sisters how to sing. Tika Sumpter
I still the love classic period, but also the baroque period, and even 17th-Century music such as the music of Monteverdi. He’s one of the greatest opera composers. He was the one who really started the opera. Cecilia Bartoli
Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive. Moliere
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
Opera is one of the most important art forms. It should be listened to and appreciated by everyone. Luciano Pavarotti
I enjoy all forms of music – pop, classical and opera. Stephen Hawking
It’s a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn’t support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, ‘Well, yeah,’ but you start to think, ‘Why not, though?’ What makes one more valuable than another? David Byrne
I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all like an opera. William Butler Yeats
But, in North Korea, it’s just the opposite. There’s one story. It’s written by the Kim regime. And 23 million people are conscripted to be secondary characters. There, as a youth, your aptitude towards certain jobs is measured, and the rest of your life is dictated, whether you’ll be a fisherman or a farmer or an opera singer. Adam Johnson
It’s very much like opera singers. They do the same thing. The first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, the thing they think about is their voice and how to take care of it. Johnny Mathis
Most of the soap operas always use the Christmas special to kill huge quantities of their characters. So they have trams coming off their rails, or cars slamming into each other or burning buildings. It’s a general clean-out. Julian Fellowes
My grandad was an opera singer, my uncle a jazz musician; I was a boy soprano in the church choir. But the first performance with Deep Purple was something I’ll never forget. All elements were working brilliantly. Ian Gillan
Opera should be a place for art forms to meet. I’ve worked a lot with Peter Gabriel; his music isn’t operatic, but he creates big, popular gatherings to which architecture, dance, and music are all invited. Robert Lepage
One of the most difficult things in opera is for people to suspend disbelief. Simon Rattle
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. Brian Eno
When you have the cast, the sets, the lights, an opera takes on its own life. I’m not one of those directors who marches in with a set of plans. Maximilian Schell
I don’t mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is a language I don’t understand. Edward Appleton
Everybody is always in the middle of their own opera. Greta Gerwig
Julianne Moore and Michael Keaton began in 1980s soap operas and 1970s sitcoms, respectively, such ancient history by show business standards that you need carbon dating to measure their careers. Steve Erickson
Then I trained as an opera singer for four years before I started singing professionally as a pop act. Jane McDonald
My sister is an opera singer. I grew up going to her recitals. This whole time, I’m like, ‘She’s the singer. I’m just strumming along and yelling.’ Benjamin Booker
Does art have a future? Performance genres like opera, theater, music and dance are thriving all over the world, but the visual arts have been in slow decline for nearly 40 years. No major figure of profound influence has emerged in painting or sculpture since the waning of Pop Art and the birth of Minimalism in the early 1970s. Camille Paglia
My grandma did opera singing for the better part of her life; she used to sing all over the place. My grandpa was a sax player, and he used to travel all over the place, too. Mac DeMarco
I adore opera and I truly believe it is one of the most beautiful art forms on Earth. Gok Wan
I started working in front of the camera for the first time when I was 15 years old. I joined a soap opera. We filmed in Brooklyn, and I would skip class to shoot my scenes. Paul Wesley
Daytime soap operas, which I used to adore, have been declining in quality and importance for over a decade, and I gradually stopped monitoring them. Camille Paglia
Most visions of extraterrestrial life are actually steeped in human hubris. The fictional extraterrestrials of ‘Star Trek’ or a hundred other space operas are less alien than many of my neighbors. And funny, the ones running the place are mostly WASPish men. Nathan Myhrvold
At the Paris Opera Ballet, they were always making choices for me. Sylvie Guillem
But Opera Man, I go, ‘Oh, crap! Why didn’t I think of that?’ Because I could sing fake opera pretty good. Jon Lovitz
I was a dancer for many years. I was a premier dancer with ‘Porgy and Bess,’ the opera. And I taught dance some, in different places. Maya Angelou
The Opera was a very cold film, a hopeless and dark film, no hope, no love. Dario Argento
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
Every year I go to Broadway to see a musical – I like the music. I saw ‘Mamma Mia;’ I saw ‘Les Miserables;’ I saw ‘Phantom of the Opera’ like six, seven times. Rafael Nadal
I was 6, and I was in the opera ‘Carmen.’ My dad sang opera and got me into the children’s chorus. I was super fat at the time and didn’t make eye contact with anyone. I knew I loved acting ever since. Owen Benjamin
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
It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created. Bruce Beresford
I was constantly being pushed toward a European ideal of what it means to be a classical or opera singer, let’s say in the Renata Tebaldi mode. I reject that. Renee Fleming
Many years ago I was in another soap opera called The Newcomers which was on twice a week for three years. I really don’t think I could do another stint like that again. Jeremy Bulloch
Opera is complex for those who perform it, but also for those who listen to it. It takes more time, more patience and more spirit of sacrifice. All this is well worth it because opera offers such deep sensations that they will remain in a heart for a lifetime. Andrea Bocelli
I’ve never been to the opera; I’ve only seen opera on DVD. Gemma Arterton
I became a set designer for opera. Maurice Sendak
As a child, I was always making sound; it was a compulsion. I loved to scream and yell and sing; it freed me from all the thoughts in my head. I begged for opera lessons because opera singing is the most formidable, most emotional way to use your voice. Zola Jesus
Writers and books are cheap dates, especially when you compare the cost of a book with a ticket to the opera – or an NHL game. Margaret Atwood
I’ve played football with George Best, the greatest footballer that ever lived. That doesn’t make me a footballer. And I’ve sung a duet with Pavarotti. That doesn’t make me an opera singer. I can write and I have a story to tell, but I’m not going to make a career out of it. Ian Gillan
Opera is the ultimate art form. It has singing and music and drama and dance and emotion and story. Diane Paulus
I started learning how to belt when I was about 10, and I had a great aunt who was an opera singer and she taught me how to breath right, so I think I really lucked out in the game right there with her because she was – in my eyes she was probably one of the most amazing singers I ever heard in my life. Susan Tedeschi
It is so important for people at a young age to be invited to embrace classical music and opera. Luciano Pavarotti
‘Amores Perros’ is rock, ’21 Grams’ is jazz, ‘Babel’ is an opera, and ‘Biutiful’ is a requiem. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
I never step upon a stage without asking myself whether I will succeed in finishing the opera. The fact is that a conscientious singer is never sure of himself or of anything. He is ever in the hands of Destiny. Enrico Caruso
If time were the wicked sheriff in a horse opera, I’d pay for riding lessons and take his gun away. W. H. Auden
When I directed the ‘Ring’ cycle at the Metropolitan Opera in New York recently, there were people texting all through the show. But theatre isn’t a communication device: it’s a communion. Robert Lepage
What I’ve discovered and really confirmed to myself is that opera really likes loud colours, and you need something bold, something savage, unpredictable, passionate. You can’t really run a two-hour opera round some muted murmuring. Ian Mcewan
Soap opera seems to be a dirty word, but actually they are the most popular shows we have. Dan Stevens
Tiles, the best furniture, fabrics, bath fixtures, bronze – just leaf through any design magazine and you immediately understand they’re all ‘Made in Italy.’ We have the premier opera house in the world, La Scala, and behind the Nobel given to CERN is the research of many Italians. Lapo Elkann
Sleep is an excellent way of listening to an opera. James Stephens
Advertising is a business of words, but advertising agencies are infested with men and women who cannot write. They cannot write advertisements, and they cannot write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. David Ogilvy
My first time on camera was ‘One Life to Live.’ I mourn for actors coming up that the daytime soap opera is becoming extinct. It’s theater onscreen. Gina Torres
Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong. Terry Pratchett
No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. W. H. Auden
Burton Cummings joining the Guess Who in January 1966 changed my life forever. It’s been a rocky affiliation, no doubt. One journalist once described our relationship as the longest running soap opera in Canadian history. That may be a bit oversimplified. Randy Bachman
‘Phantom of the Opera’ started in my little 100-seater converted church in Britain with a stage where we did what we did. But it was the score itself was what made it. Andrew Lloyd Webber
I used to work in the cotton fields a lot when I was young. There were a lot of African Americans working out there. A lot of Mexicans – the blacks and the whites and the Mexicans, all out there singing, and it was like an opera in the cotton fields, and I can still hear it in the music that I write and play today. Willie Nelson
My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being. Wole Soyinka
Doom is a classic supervillain, akin to the Phantom of the Opera. It’s not about revenge so much as, like, ‘I’m back – now watch this!’ It all boils down to the music. The mask is a slight theme for people to enjoy, and it adds mystery. MF Doom
Shameless self-publicity works, of course: living your life as a soap opera. Chris Lowe
My mum and dad were full-on proles, from the Rhondda Valley, who love opera. I’ve got quite a bit of opera, and I listen to it occasionally, but not like them. Paul Whitehouse
I wanted to be an opera singer since I was a very little girl. Nico
I think it was just an opera. Now, you go to opera, you expect to see and hear what the opera is. So, it was Catfish Row. It was singers. Marvelous voices. It didn’t make no difference what color they were. Cab Calloway
Poetry is all I write, whether for books or readings or for the National Theatre or for the opera house and concert hall or even for TV. Tony Harrison
There’s no half-singing in the shower, you’re either a rock star or an opera diva. Josh Groban
Until the Eighties, Oslo was a rather boring town, but it’s changed a lot, and is now much more cosmopolitan. If I go downtown, I visit the harbour to see the tall ships and the ferries, and to admire the modern architecture such as the Opera House or the new Astrup Fearnley Museum on the water’s edge. Jo Nesbo
The theatre only knows what it’s doing next week, not like the opera, where they say: What are we going to do in five years’ time? A completely different attitude. Harrison Birtwistle
I have an opera coach who I went to as a teenager, when I was 15 and 16 years old. When I went to college, I forgot about it. Caroline Polachek
My family was very supportive of whatever I wanted because my grandfather was an opera singer. My dad’s dad. So my dad has an appreciation for the arts, and he let me choose my own path. Tony Hale
The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it’s much, much more diluted. Yo-Yo Ma
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is about love. It’s as simple as that. Andrew Lloyd Webber
An operetta is simply a small and gay opera. Gustav Mahler
We have such a great depth of human history in all of the arts, whether it’s opera or mathematics or painting or classical music or jazz. There’s so many things to study, new books to read, and certainly always ways to transform old ideas and to come up with new ones. Patti Smith
Mostly what I listen to when I turn on my little iPod is opera. Joan Baez
It’s the perfect environment for prayer. Chanting in Greek… is like a beautiful opera, but way better. Troy Polamalu
Part of what motivated my writing was anger. I was angry that the daily misery of doctors, nurses, and patients was being trivialised into soap opera. We were made to feel bad because we were not perfect like our television counterparts. We were resentful that our patients did not get better as quickly as they did on telly – or at all. Jed Mercurio
I never listen to music when I am writing. It would be impossible. I listen to Bach in the mornings, mostly choral music; also some Handel, mostly songs and arias; I like Schubert’s and Beethoven’s chamber music and Sibelius’ symphonies; for opera, I listen to Mozart and in recent years Wagner. Colm Toibin
Grand opera is the most powerful of stage appeals and that almost entirely through the beauty of music. John Philip Sousa
I love ‘Threepenny Opera’; I was exposed to it as a little kid because my parents, my mom and my dad, had bonded, when they were dating, over ‘Threepenny Opera’ and introduced it to me, a child, who could barely understand it. But I immediately gravitated even from that early age. Sasha Velour
Rock music has always embraced – and even represented – rebellion, rowdiness, and a robust disdain for social decorum. But along with more classical art forms like theater, opera, and the symphony, it’s suffering from the distracted, smartphone-carrying audiences of the digital age. Elizabeth Flock