Maria Callas Quotes

I've always gravitated towards opera, and the Royal Opera House is quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth.

I am under no illusion that I will ever be the greatest opera composer in the world, with Wagner and Verdi and Strauss before me. I think my work could fit very nicely into musicals, though.

Art imitates life. It's definitely helpful to feel that way. You feel that way when you're leading a show and you're on a set.

The Opera is obviously the first draft of a fine spectacle; it suggests the idea of one.

If I can't get a mental image from the song, I won't sing it.

The whole thing about acting, the draw for me, is the opportunity to do things you don't get to do in real life.

I try and create for the audience something that relates to real-life experience.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

I put myself into character for my songs.

The opera in Los Angeles is excellent.

My mother took me to a lot of operas and when I was eight I got the opportunity to be in one and I realized that transformation into these make-believe situations was possible. I decided that was essentially what I wanted to do with my life.

Art is all about the experience. I could say I don't really relate to opera, but then you watch Placido Domingo, and you go, 'Blimey, look at that.'

I feel my live shows are my music; everything blossoms from the live shows.

I had a year at 3 when I wanted to be a conductor in the opera.

Whenever I get an idea for a song, even before jotting down the notes, I can hear it in the orchestra, I can smell it in the scenery, I can see the kind of actor who will sing it, and I am aware of an audience listening to it.

With dancing, so much is about sexuality and sensuality and without life experience it becomes much more of a performance, rather than a living, breathing entity from the soul.

The ability to make somebody feel something: that's art. However you look at it, whether you're an author, a painter, a singer, a rapper, a spoken-word artist - art.

Music - opera particularly - is a process which is endurable or successful only if it is achieved by people who love to collaborate.

That's one of the good things about music. You get to do it live, where you can touch the people and interact with them.

I have been drawing and creating visual works my entire life, as long as I can remember.

I like 'Goodbye My Lover' because it's a really personal song and I recorded it in my landlady's bathroom in Los Angeles. She had a piano in there and for me listening back to it, it actually sounds like the voice I hear in my head. It's so close to what I can imagine.

I have spent my life paying attention to my art form, developing my art form, worrying about my show and what I'm bringing to people, making sure that I give them a fine trade.

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

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.

As a child, I was just never that interested in the lives of my favourite actors, like Cary Grant. I do wonder whether knowing too much about someone's personal life interrupts an audience's ability to suspend disbelief, to really invest in the characters. My preference would always be that people engage with the work.