Like any other composer of opera, I choose a subject not for polemical reasons, but because it contains vivid characters in highly charged dramatic situations.
Carlisle FloydThe story of Willie Stark fascinated me because it was tackling the story of a man who outwardly has all the success one could possibly want and who is destroyed by his personal demons.
Carlisle FloydThe artist is something of an outsider in America. I have always felt that America does not value its artists, certainly not in the sense that the Europeans do.
Carlisle FloydIt's necessary to track characters all the way through an opera. If you're dealing with more than one or two characters, it's very easy to forget that the others have lives of their own that feed into the story.
Carlisle Floyd