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I love to conduct opera.

But nevertheless, it's music ultimately that matters in opera, and opera is a piece of music reaching out as a vision in sound reaching out to the world.

I would love to sing opera.

More people are listening to opera, and I'm happy - everybody must be given that opportunity.

I'd love to have the time to learn to sing opera properly rather than bellowing half-formed fragments of melody in exuberant moments.

Opera is one of the most important art forms. It should be listened to and appreciated by everyone.

To this day, I adore classical music, and I'm very interested in opera, which I found out later my father was also extremely fond of.

It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created.

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.

Opera is a beautiful and important diversion for me.