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.

Stupid criticism and still more stupid praise.

I have striven for perfection, it has always eluded me, but I surely had an obligation to make one more try.

Oh, you happy sons of the North who have been reared at the bosom of Bach, how I envy you!

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.

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.

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.