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The great opera composers were so good at their job, that the whole genre came to be built around the concept of the composer's vision.

Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama.

When you have the cast, the sets, the lights, an opera takes on its own life. I'm not one of those directors who marches in with a set of plans.

Now the big question is if you are going to go to all the trouble of setting an opera and making all that music and so on, there's got to be some aspect that you can do in an opera that really makes it worth while.

In opera, everyone's watching from a fixed viewpoint, and that really challenges you. Lighting, the sets, stage groupings, the music-but doesn't relate too much to film.

Music - opera particularly - is a process which is endurable or successful only if it is achieved by people who love to collaborate.

I think of myself as a film composer.

For me, I'm sort of a wanna-be composer, and I love being involved with the arrangements.

It was my contention that opera can not only pay for itself if it is well given, but it can also command a much wider audience if given like a play with lots of rehearsals and wonderful singers that fit the role.