Aleksa Palladino
Aleksa Palladino

Everyone in my family is an artist. Both my parents are painters and my mom's an opera singer. I was never shown any other way to process life.

Amanda Eliasch
Amanda Eliasch

My mother was an opera singer and my grandmother a concert pianist, and they only liked classical music. If I put on a pop record, they would tell me to turn it off, so I only listen to classical.

Andrea Bocelli
Andrea Bocelli

An opera singer is like an athlete before a match. An athlete cannot overdo anything. In order to perform at the highest possible level, you need to refrain from activities so as to be able to express this power.

Andy Grove
Andy Grove

I wasn't cut out to be an opera singer, but it was a nice fantasy for a teenager growing up in Hungary during the Stalinist era.

Bakermat
Bakermat

My mom was an opera singer. She did all the classical music, and I heard it. I know every opera. I know every classical piece of music.

Benjamin Booker
Benjamin Booker

My sister is an opera singer. I grew up going to her recitals. This whole time, I'm like, 'She's the singer. I'm just strumming along and yelling.'

Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills

I began by listening to my mother's collection of Amelita Galli-Curci and Lily Pons records, and then was taken (at age eight) to hear Pons at a Met performance of Lakme. It was at that moment that I decided to become an opera star. Not just an opera singer, but an opera star!

Blythe Danner
Blythe Danner

My family was very musical. My brother is an opera singer; my parents both sang.

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick
Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick

Whether you're an opera singer, a legislator or customer service operator, there is a way that we can find common ground with our audience - be they young or old, Democrats or Republicans, rich or poor, religious or secular.

Danielle de Niese
Danielle de Niese

To be a famously successful opera singer. I wanted that since I was eight.