Quotes by Performer of the Authors - Page 3

If I can do concert recitals, adapting the repertoire to my needs, then no problem, that's good enough. But with operas, unless the right circumstances come up, my career is done.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Adapting
Circumstances
No Problem
Good Done Enough
Good Enough Done
Concert
Operas
Repertoire
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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.
Luciano Pavarotti / Performer
Art
Drama
Opera
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For me, I really feel like if there's not a real, true connection to the material, I don't need to sing it. I don't need to sing songs just because I like them anymore. I've done that.
Billy Porter / Performer
Done Me Feel
Connection
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My truth is I am gay and out, and if I can't do that in my music, then I don't need it. Fortunately, I do feel like there is a movement against homophobia, and I hope to be part of that.
Billy Porter / Performer
Movement
My Truth
Truth Is
Fortunately
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Some say the word 'pop' is a derogatory word to say 'not important' - I do not accept that. If the word 'classic' is the word to say 'boring,' I do not accept. There is good and bad music.
Luciano Pavarotti / Performer
Boring
Classic
Important
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Americans, they have an incredible operatic tradition: the Metropolitan Opera House is - if not the most prestigious - one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world for over 100 years.
Jose Carreras / Performer
House
Metropolitan
Opera
Opera House
Prestigious
Tradition
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When I was younger, I did what I now call 'extreme singing.' I could do this thing where I would sing really high. I can't really do that anymore, at my age. My voice has shifted. It's changed.
Billy Porter / Performer
Extreme
Age Voice Singing
Shifted
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I am extraordinarily lucky, I was born in a family of strong moral values, and in my life I was able to do what I liked best: debuts, great theatres, but above all, inner and deep satisfaction.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Family
Best
Great
Able
Born
Lucky
Moral
Moral Values
Satisfaction
Strong
Theatre
Values
Life Family Great
Life Best Family
Life Best Great
Am
Liked
Deep
Extraordinarily
Inner
My Life
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Everybody, even me, sometimes had to compromise on something, doing things we know to be wrong, and this happens doing whatever job in the world. But a singer must have the courage of saying no.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Courage
Jobs
Compromise
Singers
World
World Me Doing
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What originates everything are the emotions, the feelings, what we call soul. Then the brain commands these feelings to the voice. The voice is just the vehicle; it's the very last step in the chain.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Vehicle
Chain
Commands
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When you grow up in the church, the only translation in that insular world that people understand is preaching. You're supposed to be a minister. So I was going down that path, and then I saw the Tonys.
Billy Porter / Performer
Preaching
Grow Up
Insular
Minister
Translation
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I love the community of theater. There is something about the camaraderie: People who show up eight times a week to do a show. It's unlike any other business. It's just lovely. You feel like you're in a family.
Billy Porter / Performer
Camaraderie
Lovely
Love Family Business
Unlike
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There was a time in the '90s where, as an African-American man, you had to be a misogynistic R&B star or a rapper, and I didn't fit into either one of those. I was advised by my label to remain closeted at that time.
Billy Porter / Performer
African American
Rapper
Advised
Label
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Seeing Jennifer Holliday from 'Dreamgirls' perform on the Tony Awards telecast and later discovering Barbra Streisand by listening to her albums at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh really changed everything for me.
Billy Porter / Performer
Awards
Discovering
Jennifer
Library
Pittsburgh
Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Perform
Tony
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I took 'Grease' to play my trump card, my voice, and get attention that would lead to auditions for serious work like 'Angels in America.' But I backed myself into a corner with 'Grease,' and it took me 17 years to get out.
Billy Porter / Performer
Auditions
Grease
Trump
Work Myself Me
Angels
Backed
Card
Corner
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I was fine being in the closet at the beginning of my career because that's what you were supposed to be - until I realized that it didn't serve anybody, and I was left feeling utterly empty. This is who I am, so I've gotta be me.
Billy Porter / Performer
Empty
Fine
Left
Anybody
I Am Me Beginning
Beginning
Career
Closet
Feeling
Gotta
Realized
Serve
Supposed
Utterly
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I'm not a politician, I'm a musician. I care about giving people a place where they can go to enjoy themselves and to begin to live again. To the man you have to give the spirit, and when you give him the spirit, you have done everything.
Luciano Pavarotti / Performer
Men
Giving
People
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All you need to do is turn on the news, and in five minutes, you're depressed with the state of the world. Choosing joy is a completely active choice. It doesn't just happen. You can't just say, 'I want to be happy.' You have to take action.
Billy Porter / Performer
Happy
Action
Five
Joy
Minutes
News
Be Happy
Choice
Choosing
Take
State
Depressed
Say
Happen
Turn
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In certain professions, you can love your profession; you can do it in a very professional way and do it wonderfully, but you do not have this possibility to communicate with others - I express myself singing, and I think this is a real luxury.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Communicate
Luxury
Possibility
Profession
You Can Do It
Love Myself Your
Wonderfully
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If a man becomes more mature due to certain episodes in his life, it gives him the opportunity to look at life in a much more deep way. I believe the artist and the man work parallel, with the same feelings, the same soul, the same sensitivity.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Episodes
Mature
Sensitivity
Life Work Opportunity
Life Work Believe
Due
Parallel
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People naturally want to know about what happened, about my leukemia. They ask the same questions again and again. And there have been so many positive conclusions, even through the bad times, that I don't mind at all to be reminded of my struggles.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Bad Times
Leukemia
Naturally
Conclusions
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I just feel like we as a human race tend to fear that which we don't understand. It's cause for a lot of bad things and bad behavior to exist on the planet. Artists have a way of touching people and changing minds in a way that sometimes other mediums don't.
Billy Porter / Performer
Bad Behavior
Behavior
Human Race
Mediums
Touching
Fear People Feel
Artists
Exist
Minds
Planet
Tend
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Just by the nature of making the choice to be true to who I am, I'm political. Sometimes that's all you need to do: Show up and be black, gay and Christian in America and actually say it out loud. And refuse to let anything or anybody take that away from you.
Billy Porter / Performer
America
Black
Christian
Gay
Loud
Political
Refuse
Actually
Anybody
True
Away
Be True
Show
Choice
Take
Say
Making
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When I'm about to train a new opera, I first listen to how Jussi Björling did it. His voice was unique and it's his path that I want to follow. I would more than anything else wish that people compared me with Jussi Björling. It's like so I'm striving to sing.
Luciano Pavarotti / Performer
People
Unique
Voice
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When you're at the beginning of your career, there are a lot of, "I don't care about this," jobs that you take because it's about building your resume and building connections. There are so many factors that don't have anything to do with choosing for the material.
Billy Porter / Performer
Jobs
Careers
Connections
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I'm not a person who believes that Broadway is the only place. I think there's lots of work that goes on outside of Broadway and outside of New York that's better than anything Broadway has ever seen. But, it's historically the place. It's one of the centers of the universe, in many ways.
Billy Porter / Performer
New York
Believe
Thinking
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I've worked with a lot of gay and lesbian organizations. I sit on the board of the Empire State Pride Agenda. I've also done a lot of work for Broadway Care/Equity Fights AIDS. I think it's important because, when we can be of service to others, it only enhances our lives. I've been helped a lot in my life.
Billy Porter / Performer
Aids
Broadway
Done
Empire State
Gay
Our Lives
Pride
Service To Others
Life Work Done
Agenda
Fights
Board
Empire
Enhances
Organizations
Helped
Lesbian
My Life
Service
Sit
Worked
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If you gauge how you're doing on whether somebody is responding vocally or not, you're up a creek. You can't do that; you kind of have to be inside of your work and play the scene. And tell the story every day. Tell the story. Tell the story. Regardless of how people are responding, I'm going to tell the story.
Billy Porter / Performer
Responding
Scene
Work Your Day
Work Day People
Creek
Gauge
Regardless
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Many movie stars or American Idol contestants sort of fall into theater... and say, 'Oh, yeah, I would love to do theater.' And then they get here and say, 'Oh, wait a minute, this actually is a craft!' It's not just show up one day and do it. It's show up eight times a week, twice on Wednesdays and twice on Saturdays.
Billy Porter / Performer
American Idol
Contestants
Eight
Fall
Stars
Theater
Yeah
Twice
Oh
Craft
Wait
Idol
Minute
Movie Stars
Oh Yeah
Saturdays
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When I had a record deal in the '90s, that was my dream - to make an album like Barbra Streisand's Broadway album - and they laughed me out of the room. Broadway wasn't cool. But artists like Michael Buble and Josh Groban have brought the classic genre back to the forefront, so I'm trying to find my way inside that market.
Billy Porter / Performer
Broadway
Classic
Genre
Josh
Laughed
Streisand
Cool Me Way
Michael
Forefront
Record Deal
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I grew up when one of America's greatest black playwrights, August Wilson, was writing about life in Pittsburgh, but I never saw myself in any of his straight-male plays. And then I see 'Angels,' which was so honest and painful, and it had this black drag queen in it, Belize, with a big heart. I finally had a character to relate to.
Billy Porter / Performer
August
Big Heart
Drag
Painful
Pittsburgh
Relate
Wilson
Life Myself Heart
Angels
Queen
Playwrights
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The voice is like a man, like ourselves: we all feel melancholic about what we have lost, the things we could do when we were young. But having the possibility to still perform is wonderful. The voice loses elasticity as you age, but on the other hand, maybe you are more mature as an interpreter, maybe your approach to singing deepens.
Jose Carreras / Performer
Elasticity
Interpreter
Loses
Mature
Possibility
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I'm not one of those actors who gets so taken by a role that I can't live my life. I'm the type of actor who goes to work, transforms into a character, takes you on a journey, and then comes back home to be Billy. When I'm in it, I'm in it, but I know how to get out of it. When you can't shut it off, you're a crazy person. I'm not crazy.
Billy Porter / Performer
Journey
Crazy Person
Taken
Type
Life Work Home
Billy
Shut
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You never know what little bundle of encouragements artists carry around with them, what little pats on the back from what hands, what newspaper clipping, what word of hope from what teacher. I suppose the so-called faith in ourselves is the foundation of our talent, but I am sure these encouragements are the mortar that holds it together.
Luciano Pavarotti / Performer
Encouragement
Teacher
Artist
Hands
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I had to come out to my mother three times over a twelve-year period, but I first came out to her when I was sixteen. It didn't go over so well, because I grew up in the Pentecostal Church. It was a very strict environment. She has since done a lot of work and has really blown my mind. She has learned about my life and has changed her mind.
Billy Porter / Performer
Church
Environment
Pentecostal
Sixteen
Strict
Life Work Done
Life Work Mother
Blown
Period
Life Work Mind
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I may not be funny. I may not be a singer. I may not be a damn seamstress. I may have diabetes. I may have really bad vision. I may have one leg. I may not know how to read. I may not know who the vice president is. I may technically be an alien of the state. I may have a Zune. I may not know Excel. I may be two 9-year-olds in a trench coat. I may not have full control of my bowels. I may drive a '94 Honda Civic. I may not “get” cameras. I may dye my hair with Hydrogen Peroxide. I may be afraid of trees. I may be on fire right now. But I'm a fierce queen.
Justin Johnson / Performer
Queens
Fire
Hair
Two
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