History Quotes / Opera

->''"Well, basically there are two sorts of opera ... 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."''
-->-- '''Nanny Ogg''', ''{{Literature/Maskerade}}''

->''"[[LoveTriangle A tenor and soprano want to make love, but are prevented from doing so by the baritone.]]"''
-->-- '''Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw''''s definition of opera

->''"She seemed to me a good deal like what Cleopatra would have been after going in too freely for the starches and cereals. I don't know why it is, but women who have anything to do with Opera, even if they're only studying for it, always appear to run to surplus poundage."''
-->-- '''[[Literature/JeevesAndWooster Bertie Wooster]]''', ''Very Good, Jeeves!''

->''"Opera is a show which starts at 7 o'clock, and when you look at your watch three hours later, it's 7:25."''
-->-- '''Folklore'''

->''"Opera: It's better than you think. It has to be."''
-->--'''Baltimore Opera''' ad campaign slogan

->''(Rat and Pig are watching [=TV=])''
->'''Goat:''' What are you watching, Rat?
->'''Rat:''' A bunch of fat Italians yelling at each other.
->'''Goat:''' It's called opera.
->'''Pig:''' See, I told you it wasn't ''Series/{{Cops}}''.
->'''Rat:''' So that's why no one got maced.
-->-- ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine''

->''"Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive."''
-->-- '''Moliere'''

->''"Now I know that you all say that Opera ain't nothin' but hollerin'... and it ain't. It ain't but, well, it's high-class hollerin'".''
-->'''Creator/AndyGriffith''', at the start of his "Opera ''Carmen''" routine

-->-- '''Nanny Ogg''', ''{{Discworld/Maskerade}}''

-->-- '''HLMencken'''

-->-- '''W. H. Auden'''

-->-- '''Edward Lewis''' (Richard Gere), in ''PrettyWoman''

-->-- '''GeorgeBernardShaw''''s definition of opera

->No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

->Well, basically there are two sorts of opera ... 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.

->She seemed to me a good deal like what Cleopatra would have been after going in too freely for the starches and cereals. I don't know why it is, but women who have anything to do with Opera, even if they're only studying for it, always appear to run to surplus poundage.

->Opera in English is like baseball in Italian.

->Opera is a show which starts at 7 o'clock, and when you look at your watch three hours later, it's 7:25.

->Opera: It's better than you think. It has to be.

->People's reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic; they either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don't, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul.

->Opera: It's [[BetterThanItSounds better than you think]]. It has to be.

-->-- '''Literature/BertieWooster''', ''Very Good, Jeeves!''

-->-- '''Edward Lewis''' (Richard Gere), in ''Film/PrettyWoman''

-->-- '''[[PGWodehouse P.G. Wodehouse]]''', ''Very Good, Jeeves!''

-->-- '''[[HLMencken H.L. Mencken]]'''

-->-- '''H.L. Mencken'''