Opera Quotes

“Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings.”
― Robert Benchley

“Love is a rebellious bird,
that nobody can tame,
and you call him quite in vain,
if it suits him not to come.”
― Ludovic Halévy

“None of us can choose where we shall love...”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“Floating, falling, sweet intoxication. Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation. Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in to the power of the music of the night.”
― Charles Hart, The Phantom of the Opera: Sheet Music Piano/Vocal

“They played at hearts as other children might play at ball; only, as it was really their two hearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy to catch them, each time, without hurting them.”
― Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera

“Theatres are curious places, magician's trick-boxes where the golden memories of dramtic triumphs linger like nostalgic ghosts, and where the unexplainable, the fantastic, the tragic, the comic and the absurd are routine occurences on and off the stage. Murders, mayhem, politcal intrigue, lucrative business, secret assignations, and of course, dinner.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“Well, basically there are two sorts of opera," said Nanny, who also had the true witch's ability to be confidently expert on the basis of no experience whatsoever. "There's your heavy opera, where basically people sing foreign and it goes like "Oh oh oh, I am dyin', oh I am dyin', oh oh oh, that's what I'm doin'", and there's your light opera, where they sing in foreign and it basically goes "Beer! Beer! Beer! Beer! I like to drink lots of beer!", although sometimes they drink champagne instead. That's basically all of opera, reely.”
― Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

“My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches ever outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand. And yet, like Faust, I look in vain, I learn in vain. . . . For as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“The Departure Aria, a very important and romantic song -
This damn door sticks,
This damn door sticks
It sticks no matter what I do.
It is marked 'pull' and indeed I am pulling
Perhaps it should be marked 'push'?”
― Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

“Dedication: My thanks to the people who showed me that opera was stranger than I could imagine. I can best repay their kindness by not mentioning their names here.”
― Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

“The only thing worse than opera is someone who hums along with opera.”
― Josh Lanyon, A Dangerous Thing

“I can see Richard Wagner standing at the gates of heaven. "You have to let me in," he says. "I wrote Parsifal. It has to do with the Grail, Christ, suffering, pity and healing. Right?" And they answer, "Well, we read it and it makes no sense." SLAM.”
― Philip K. Dick, Valis

“For the love of God, unless you’re prepping for Rigoletto at the Met, go easy on the eyeliner.”
― Cheryl Cory

“You can learn more by going to the opera than you ever can by reading Emerson. Like that there are two sexes.”
― David Markson

“(Referring to the piano's natural shape) Isn't it a shame when those big fat opera singers lean against the pianos and bend them?”
― Victor Borge

“The opera…is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.”
― H. L. Mencken

“Opera lovers may be the narrowest people in the world.”
― Haruki Murakami, After the Quake

“Without a doubt it was Dr. Urbino's most contagious initiative, for opera fever infected the most surprising elements in the city and gave rise to a whole generation of Isoldes and Otellos and Aidas and Siegfrieds. But it never reached the extremes Dr. Urbino had hoped for, which was to see Italianizers and Wagnerians confronting each other with sticks and canes during the intermissions.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

“La dictadura es como una aria y nunca llega a ser ópera.”
― Emilia Pardo Bazán

“That´s the problem with planning a late night supper after the opera, not only does the hero or the heroine die singing, but you end up famished after the last notes of the finale.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

“The dictatorship is like an aria that never becomes an opera.”
― Emilia Pardo Bazán

“You want to feel that you belong to something higher, to something even beyond this universe, then go to the opera!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“The magazine had run an interview with a neuroscientist some years ago, a guy who studied the effects of music on the brain, and it had shown that the music one loved in one's youth imprinted on the brain, literally making its own dopamine pathways, which was why people were always dancing in grocery store aisles. They weren't just happy; they were actually high on their own brains. Maybe that was why opera had fewer fans than musical theater---almost no one started listening to opera when they were twelve. Everyone Annie knew would have agreed that music was integral to life and offered a transcendent release from one's otherwise terrestrial existence.”
― Emma Straub, American Fantasy

“Ah! Pauvre ami, comme il m'aimait!”
― Massenet Jules

“Sang Penari

VI — Perjumpaan Puncak — Litani Penanggalan Roh—

Keempat empu itu mengitari Sang Penari seperti konstelasi gelap yang menolak memberikan arah.

Topeng Hannya—membuka rahasia luka batin yang ia simpan sejak remaja.

Lorca—memberinya bahasa untuk mengutuk ketidakadilan yang ia alami.

Pavlova—mengajarinya bahwa keanggunan adalah bentuk terakhir dari keputusasaan.

Bhairava—menuntut ia menghabisi semua bentuk “aku” yang masih ia genggam.

Sang Penari bergerak di tengah mereka,
gerakannya membentuk huruf-huruf tak dikenal
seperti alfabet kuno dari peradaban yang hilang.

Ia menari sampai tubuhnya bukan tubuh,
waktu bukan waktu,
dan seluruh ruangan berubah menjadi ruang batin.

Di puncak putaran terakhir,
ia merasakan dirinya terbelah:
separuh menjadi angin,
separuh menjadi debu,
separuh lagi menjadi sesuatu yang tak memiliki wujud
namun menyimpan kecerdasan tak terlukiskan.

Dan tiba-tiba, sunyi.
Hannya jatuh menjadi topeng kosong.
Lorca lenyap seperti tembakan yang tak punya peluru.
Pavlova memudar menjadi serbuk putih.
Bhairava kembali menjadi cahaya merah gelap
yang mengalir ke tanah seperti darah dari dimensi lain.

Sang Penari berdiri sendirian.
Tapi ia bukan lagi manusia.
Ia adalah penanda,
arsip hidup tentang apa yang terjadi
ketika seseorang menari sampai inti jiwanya menghilang.

Dan dari ruang gelap itu,
sebuah suara tanpa bentuk terdengar:

“Kini kau bukan lagi penari.
Kau adalah tarian itu sendiri.”

Agustus 2025”
― Titon Rahmawan

“Of course, in a sense, all opera is absurd.”
― Stephen Walsh, The Beloved Vision: A History of Nineteenth Century Music

“Operetėse nėra ir niekada nebuvo jokios moralės.
Operetėje visi užsiima tik tuo, kad apsimetinėja kuo nors kitu, nei yra pagal oficialų libretą, ir bando ką nors amoraliai suvilioti kiauksėdami įtartinas daineles. Operetę kaip žanrą apskritai galima priskirti prie mažųjų amoralumo formų.”
― Undinė Radzevičiūtė, Pavojingi žodžiai

“We consider the opera queen to be a pre-Stonewall throwback because we homophobically devalue opera love as addictive behavior and as displaced eroticism.”
― Wayne Koestenbaum, The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire

“In opera, when women accepted their fate, it usually meant that they were going to marry someone they didn't want to marry and then kill themselves.”
― Emma Straub, American Fantasy

“Vain but vibrant, Vincent the Vulture sampled valuable venison in Vergennes, Vermont. That evening, from the red velvet seats at an opera house, he watched a show.”
― Olivia Weisman, Alphabet Animal Adventures Across America: A to Z with Friends, Foods and Places to Go