Directing an opera is similar to directing a play. The singing must not get in the way of the drama.

I'd really been interested in opera when I was about 16, and I really like staging them.

In silent movies, they tended to put the camera down, and everybody walked in front of it and acted, and then they all walked off. Cutting was quite infrequent.

It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created.

When the music and the characters are flawlessly synchronized, the opera develops an emotional force that movies and plays cannot match.

Perhaps the most difficult thing is shooting scenes set 6,000 feet up in the mountains of Mexico.

When we were trying to get the money together for the film, one reason that was consistently given for not investing in it was that everyone kept saying no one could direct it well enough to entertain an audience for 100 minutes essentially watching three people chatting in the kitchen.