If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact... that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[T]he syndrome known as life is too diffuse to admit of palliation. For every symptom that is eased, another is made worse. The ho...rse leech's daughter is a closed system. Her quantum of wantum cannot vary.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Off south, the bison multiply so fast a slaughter's mandatory every spring... and every spring the creeks get fat and Kicking Horse fills up.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The real exertion in the case of an opera singer lies not so much in her singing as in her acting of a role, for nearly every mode...rn opera makes great dramatic and physical demands.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My chance, when it came, was due, literally, to the fact that I was slender.... You cannot make an opera audience believe that a m...an will endanger his soul, and commit robbery and murder for a very stout lady's sake.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Ride a cock-horse to Banbury-Cross, To see an old woman get up on her horse.... Rings on her fingers, and bells on her toes, And so she makes music wherever she goes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »