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"Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama."
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"Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations."
"Like an opera singer, I am able to sing out my song in paint."
"A show like Knots or any other show that can be called a soap opera does terribly in syndication because if you're a viewer and you miss a week you don't know what's going on."
"A great opera house isn't run by a director, but by a great administrator."
"I was interested in opera and it seemed to me that the only possible theatre for contemporary opera would be television. So I started working towards a kind of television kind of opera."
"This is not a rock opera. This is not Tommy. I can write songs that emote, and that's it."
"Ironically, that was quite a bit of the appeal of Rumours. It's equally interesting on a musical level and as a soap opera."
Explore more quotes by Bruce Beresford
"When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men."
"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."
"On stage, the audience watches from a fixed viewpoint and the director cannot retake something he doesn't like. It has to work straight through."
"In silent movies, they tended to put the camera down, and everybody walked in front of it and acted, and then they all walked off. Cutting was quite infrequent."
"When we were trying to get the money for Driving Miss Daisy, everyone kept saying no one could direct it well enough to entertain an audience for 100 minutes essentially watching three people chatting in the kitchen."
"Quite a few operas are still being commissioned around the world, although nothing apart from audience popularity can ensure more than a few performances."
"I don't rehearse films as much as opera or theatre. When I began directing films I thought a long rehearsal was a good idea. Experience showed me that the best performance was often left in a rehearsal room."
"In Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films."
"With a film, I do my best to understand the author's intentions and try to bring the characters to life."
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