# Opera Quote



## ooopera (Jul 27, 2011)

I was thinking that we may collect "famous" quotes about opera. What do you think? If you agree, I'll start.

Pierre Boulez:

_The most elegant way of solving the opera problem would be to blow up the opera houses.
_
(about opera crisis after 1945)

And he became later (also) an opera conductor  
Further - he's planning to compose one:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2010/jul/09/pierre-boulez-opera-waiting-for-godot

Here's really interesting interview about opera with Mr. Boulez from 1967. But unfortunately in German (sorry about that folks): http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46353389.html


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Luckily the link containing the interview auto-translated for me. Unless Boulez has altered his stance since 1967 I can hardly think how he can expect to make a worthwhile contribution with an opera of his own when, in his opinion, everyone else since Berg/Schoenberg has singularly failed to enrich the genre. Considering his advanced age and his 'work in progress' attitude towards a lot of his other output it'll be a bloody miracle if he actually finishes it, never mind see it performed.

Sadly I can't think of another quote to match the notoriety of Boulez' - in a way this is CM's equivalent of John Lennon's 'Jesus' quote.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

H.L. Mencken said ,and this may not be exact, "Opera in English makes about as much sense as baseball in Italian " !


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

elgars ghost said:


> Sadly I can't think of another quote to match the notoriety of Boulez' - in a way this is CM's equivalent of John Lennon's 'Jesus' quote.


I'd never heard the Boulez quote before, and I have absolutely no idea what Lennon said about anything, ever. I live a sheltered life.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

After praising a performance of Carmen conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham for the way he brought out the details of the orchestration, the speaker remarked, the only problem was that the orchestra was playing so loudly they drowned out the singers. Beecham replied "Yes, I drowned them out as a service to the public".


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

"Very nice aria; who wrote it?"
Rossini to Adelina Patti after a perhaps too-heavily ornamented rendition of Una Voce Poco Fa


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Polednice said:


> I'd never heard the Boulez quote before, and I have absolutely no idea what Lennon said about anything, ever. I live a sheltered life.


In the mid-60s Lennon claimed that The Beatles were 'bigger than Jesus', or words to that effect - he said this in the States and there was a serious backlash across the whole of the Bible Belt which threatened to derail the world domination juggernaut for a while. I'm assuming Boulez courted similar controversy with his remark even if, like Lennon, he didn't expect it to bite back at him as much as it actually did.


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## ooopera (Jul 27, 2011)

Richard Wagner: 
_I believe in God, Mozart, and Beethoven._

Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
_I like Wagner's music better than any other music. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time, without people hearing what one says._


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