John Tiffany Quotes

To me, being a classical snob in the highest possible way and being an indie snob is just as bad!

I am regarded as a usurper, as an imposter and dilettante, because I do technically come from the wrong side of the tracks in musical terms.

For me, few things are more compelling than watching a great opera.

Hypocrisy is the essence of snobbery, but all snobbery is about the problem of belonging.

I love opera. I love jazz, especially Mingus. This makes me sound highbrow. I'm not.

Art is head space that is very exclusive: it shuts people out; other people cease to exist.

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.

The orchestral or symphonic music never interested me.

I love music, especially classical like Verdi; it's a great way to relax.

People perceive opera and classical as elitist - I disagree. I've always tried to mix the two, make it more accessible.

People do look at it as an insult that I say I don't listen to country music, which cracks me up.

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.

I'd like to explode a few myths about what we call classical music. It's not high art for the titillation of a chosen few.

I love opera so much. I would never go back to doing it, but I love to listen - I'm grateful for it.

My father's an opera nut, and my stepmother used to work at the Metropolitan Opera, so I had a lot of opera immersion. I like the grandness and pretention of it.

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.

You can't get down and dirty at the opera.

Many sensible things banished from high life find an asylum among the mob.

I come from a classical background.

People who like progressive music tend to sneer at the idea of a kind of punk aesthetic, and people who like alternative indie rock or punk rock tend to sneer at what they see as the pretentiousness and pomposity of progressive music.

The biggest myth I'd like to bust isn't about me - it's about musicals. So many people dismiss the entire art form through highbrow snobbery, but I think a lot of those people would be suprised if they actually saw some.

People speak with enormous pomposity and arrogance about music.

As Mark Twain said, 'I love Wagner -- if only they'd cut out all that damned singing!'

The Clique: The only thing harder then getting in is staying in.

As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully.