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 adore art...when I am alone with my notes, my heart pounds and the tears stream from my eyes, and my emotion and my joys are too much to bear.

You may have the universe if I may have Italy.

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.

I order that my funeral ceremonies be extremely modest, and that they take place at dawn or at the evening Ave Maria, without song or music.

Oh blessed a thousand times the peasant who is born, eats and dies without anybody bothering about his affairs.