Of all composers, past and present, I am the least learned. I mean that in all seriousness, and by learning I do not mean knowledge of music. Giuseppe Verdi More Quotes by Giuseppe Verdi More Quotes From Giuseppe Verdi I adore art...when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear. Giuseppe Verdi eye joy art You may have the universe if I may have Italy. Giuseppe Verdi individualism may travel I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try. Giuseppe Verdi obligation perfection trying To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better. Giuseppe Verdi truth-is creativity music It is better to invert reality than to copy it. Giuseppe Verdi invert copies reality It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better. Giuseppe Verdi good-things may reality The artist must yield himself to his own inspiraton, and if he has a true talent, no one knows and feels better than he what suits him. Giuseppe Verdi yield feel-better artist Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise. Giuseppe Verdi criticism stupid praise The success of our operas rests most of the time in the hands of the conductor. This person is as necessary as a tenor or a prima donna. Giuseppe Verdi tenors opera hands The artist must yield himself to his own inspiration... I should compose with utter confidence a subject that set my musical blood going, even though it were condemned by all other artists as anti-musical. Giuseppe Verdi yield artist inspiration Oh blessed a thousand times the peasant who is born, eats and dies without anybody bothering about his affairs. Giuseppe Verdi affair solitude blessed Oh, you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you! Giuseppe Verdi bosoms envy son Through care taken over trends, the desire to be novel and affectation knowledge, we repudiate our art, our instinct, our own way of doing things; it is absurd and stupid Giuseppe Verdi taken stupid art A man like Verdi must write like Verdi. Giuseppe Verdi verdi writing men Our mistake, you see, was to write interminable large operas, which had to fill an entire evening. And now along comes someone with a one or two-act opera without all that pompous nonsense - that was a happy reform. Giuseppe Verdi mistake writing two I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music. Giuseppe Verdi funeral song order I deny that either singers or conductors can "create" or work creatively - this, as I have always said, is a conception that leads to the abyss. Giuseppe Verdi deny singers said
