English Quotes

What people really should be able to be confident in is that the standards of music- making that classically trained musicians present is elite, it is the best and all of us as artists should be committed to that.

To tell you the truth, I never listen to opera at home.

There are a lot of unseen elements to having a successful singing career.

The musical heritage of Yorkshire is deep and wide.

Singing is an arduous business and it needs sacrifices.

Opera is credible drama now, and it costs less than going to a football match. What have you got to lose?

One of the problems that we face through the media attention that these artists receive is that there has been an awful lot of talk about opera and classical music being elite and being for an elitist group.

Nobody inspired me more than Julie Andrews, who is a classically trained soprano herself.

It worries me that young singers think you can shortcut the training and go straight to fame and fortune, and programmes like Pop Idol have encouraged that.

I'm very pro presenting the best music I can to the widest audience possible.

I'm engaging my diaphragm as I'm speaking to you right now.

I wouldn't want to criticise someone like Charlotte Church because she has done fantastically well, but personally I've always cared about the long term.

I would just like to say that opera is no longer about fat people in breastplates shattering wine glasses.

I saw The Sound of Music when I was 10 and thought that it was the most beautiful singing I had ever heard.

I performed in Sydney some years ago for the Sydney Festival and I am just so pleased to be returning to the wonderful Sydney Opera House and also performing in Melbourne for the first time.

I don't think I have ever met a single person who isn't moved by music of some kind.

I don't just come from a musical family, but from a musical community.

I do a lot of vocal hygiene.

As far as I was concerned the important thing was that the music was getting the attention as well as me so it was always a great way to get more of the public to connect with classical music, and opera particularly.

And woven into the fabric of this harsh existence was music.

That was when I realised that music is the most profound, magical form of communication there is.

Music is there to access those dark emotional corners that we don't normally get too close to.

I do hope that our spring will be starting shortly and we will all be able to enjoy some sunshine again.

What I liked about doing a soundtrack is that it's almost the opposite of any kind of normal recording that a band does, because it's very much a restricted, narrow... And I kind of like that, I find it exciting to work within these things.

I think that most people who write about music just want to fill some paper. They're not really interested in getting to the heart of something. Otherwise, they wouldn't write what they write.

Because for me, '60s pop music is amongst the most complicated or complex music because it has so many resonances which strike you. The music itself is often simple, but the way that I interpret it, or the way I think it's interpreted culturally, is very complex.

There is one rule for politicians all over the world: Don't say in Power what you say in opposition; if you do, you only have to carry out what the other fellows have found impossible.

The French cook; we open tins.

Religion was nearly dead because there was no longer real belief in future life; but something was struggling to take its place - service - social service - the ants creed, the bees creed.

Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.