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I've worked with some great orchestras and amazing classical musicians, but I don't like the conceptualization of classical music as an elitist form of art.

Opera is the original marriage of words and music, and there's a theatre element, a dramatic element. It's right up my alley.

I like the idea of people coming to opera for the first time and finding it an enjoyable experience. I don't like the fact that opera is seen as elitist and all black ties and that stuff.

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.

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.

When I'm in the classical world, I really treat it as exactly classical and I don't try and spruce it up or jazz it up or make it easier for the masses.

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

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

Opera is a beautiful and important diversion for me.

More and more, we're used to taking things in through the eyes rather than through the ears, and opera is more of a spectacle.