Claude Debussy Quotes

In opera, there is always too much singing.

I don't want people confusing what it is that I'm about. I just stand there and sing. And I don't do stunts or anything. if I wanted to do all that, I don't think I'd get away with it.

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

'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.

I didn't think of myself as a singer. I'm an actor who recites words, and sometimes that happens to be on musical notes.

I want to sing because I want to sing.

When I was invited to sing with Pavarotti, I had about two weeks to learn Italian.

I love to conduct opera.

I find singing as somebody else very liberating, it just frees me up.

My degree was in opera.

Singing was the big focus and outlet for me.

Really, the impetus driving me is I've always sung, but I like to act, I like drama, I like text, which is why opera is something I've come late to, I'd say.

Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability . . . For the ear he is an unutterable bore, not nearly so talented as Frank Sinatra back in the latter's rather hysterical days at the Paramount Theater.

I dislike those people that see an opera and say "Oh, they can't act it. They just sing. It's boring." Lean back and just listen to the voices.

I'm open to different parts. I would love to do something where I can sing and act at the same time.

I'm singing. I'm a singer!

Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)

Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability. His specialty is rhythm songs which he renders in an undistinguished whine; his phrasing, if it can be called that, consists of the stereotyped variations that go with a beginner's aria in a bathroom. For the ear, he is an unutterable bore.

Sing!" Grandpa Smedry yelled, his voice echoing down a hallway to the right."Sing!" If he breaks into song I think I might have to strangle myself... I thought, cringing.

When you say you're doing an opera, it's like when you're a seven-year-old and say, 'I'm off to Washington, Dad.' You kind of go, 'Sure. Sure you are, son.'

I love to sing. It's just a natural thing for me.

Almost all the shows I've been connected with have been extremely well cast. They're playing the show, not just doing the songs.

I have attended operas, whenever I could not help it, for fourteen years now; I am sure I know of no agony comparable to the listening to an unfamiliar opera.

The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna.

The closest thing to Roseanne Barr's singing the national anthem was my cat being neutered.