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"The opera tells the story with all the built-in contradictions and from many different angles."
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"Many years ago I was in another soap opera called The Newcomers which was on twice a week for three years. I really don't think I could do another stint like that again."
"We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear ."
"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."
"Ironically, that was quite a bit of the appeal of Rumours. It's equally interesting on a musical level and as a soap opera."
"Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama."
"If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role."
Explore more quotes by Harrison Birtwistle
"There are rhythmic ideas which sometimes only work up to a point. In writing there are moments when it just comes off the page, it's not just a collection of notes."
"I don't have ideas so much as there are things which constantly evolve... there are various threads or layers, if you like, which change."
"My attitude to writing is like when you do wallpapering, you remember where all the little bits are that don't meet. And then your friends say: It's terrific!"
"Minimalism now is a reaction to what came before. It's absolutely of its time. Music moved into the set theory thing, and moved out of it."
"The theatre only knows what it's doing next week, not like the opera, where they say: What are we going to do in five years' time? A completely different attitude."
"One thing I've tried to do in writing music is take on very basic things, very archetypal things."
"The thing about influence is that any composer worth anything will give you the same names."
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