When you speak of tenors, you have to divide them into two groups. Caruso in the first group. All the others are in the second.

Rosa Ponselle

In the surroundings of an opera performance, once I am deep in it, I am living it. Between the acts and in my dressing room to change costumes, I do not realize I am Rosa Ponselle. I seem instead to be Aida, Gioconda, Norma--the woman I am singing. And when the last curtain falls, I am a rag--but contented.