Sarah Caldwell (March 6, 1924 – March 23, 2006) was an American opera conductor, impresario, and stage director. (wikipedia)
Success is important only to the extent that it.
The fact is that great musical pieces take and hold the stage because they provide great emotional experiences.
If you approach an opera as though it were something that always went a certain way, that's what you get. I approach an opera as though I didn't know it.
Music - opera particularly - is a process which is endurable or successful only if it is achieved by people who love to collaborate.
That's what it is that you rehearse - the making of music, not the playing of notes as abstractions.
Success is important only to the extent that it puts one in a position to do more things one likes to do.
Raving mad is quite easy. You just chew up the scenery or something. It's quiet mad that's hard.
Opera is everything rolled into one - music, theater, the dance, color and voices and theatrical illusions.
Once in a while, when everything is just right, there is a moment of magic. People can live on moments of magic.
We must continuously discipline ourselves to I remember how it felt the first moment.