Rufus Wainwright Quotes

My operas and my theatre works are very formal pieces.

Opera is the ultimate art form. It has singing and music and drama and dance and emotion and story.

I'd like to direct more operas.

In opera, everyone's watching from a fixed viewpoint, and that really challenges you. Lighting, the sets, stage groupings, the music-but doesn't relate too much to film.

It was my contention that opera can not only pay for itself if it is well given, but it can also command a much wider audience if given like a play with lots of rehearsals and wonderful singers that fit the role.

I'm very into the first production of the show.

Opera is really fun.

I saw a lot of operas from backstage and watched a lot of rehearsals - my parents were singers.

I was never really interested in an operatic post, but I took on the Bastille because it seemed a unique opportunity to build an opera ensemble from scratch, and to deal with all the disciplines that go into opera - the music, the staging and the singing - in an interrelated way.

I went on tour in the play H.M.S. Pinafore.

I really miss the rehearsal process of theater.

Now the big question is if you are going to go to all the trouble of setting an opera and making all that music and so on, there's got to be some aspect that you can do in an opera that really makes it worth while.

'Rigoletto' has long been one of my favorite operas, and it was on my short list way back when I first talked to Peter Gelb. I started thinking about what I could bring to this masterpiece, which has been seen all over the world for so many years.

One of the things I love about opera is that it's the combination of all the art forms, and certainly the world of fashion is a big deal in it.

Opera is the most complete art form. It includes drama, acting, technology (lighting), art (the sets), dance, and the epitome of the human voices. But mostly, go for the glorious music. The arts are crucial to the life of every community.

I wouldn't succeed at musical theater.

I love opening night, and I love doing plays. But one of my favorite parts about doing a play or working on a new play is rehearsal.

I would love to do a musical. I would love that. I would have to find the right book, the right story, but some day I'm going to make one. I would really like to go off and direct a musical. That's what I would really like to do when I grow up.

'You Can't Take It With You' has eighteen people onstage at one point. Musicals entail a larger collaboration, and I love that.

I'd love to do 'Werther.' It's a great opera, and the music's so beautiful.

I started out producing theatre in New York.

Opera is too obsessed with buildings.

I played Benedick in 'Much Ado About Nothing' nearly 30 years ago at the RSC, alongside Susan Fleetwood as Beatrice, and I loved every minute.

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.

I feel that, irrespective of a hit or flop, there's always pressure on an actor. When you give a flop, there's a pressure to ensure that the next film works, and when you give a hit, you want to keep it going. So, the pressure of success and failure is always there, and that's what keeps me going.