Daily Inspiration Quote by Bruce Beresford

Opera’s dirty little secret is that it can turn story into sport: a parade of vocal feats that audiences applaud like gymnastic landings. Bruce Beresford, speaking as a film-and-theater director who’s crossed into opera, is pushing back against that reflex with a deceptively blunt provocation: treat singing as a delivery system for drama, not a decorative override.

The intent is practical, even disciplinary. In opera rehearsals, the gravitational pull of “sound first” is intense: singers are trained to optimize breath, projection, and phrasing, often in ways that freeze the body or flatten motivation. Beresford’s line is a note to the entire ecosystem - directors, conductors, performers, and even tradition - that technical excellence isn’t the point if it breaks the scene’s truth. He’s not anti-singing; he’s anti-singing as an alibi. If the aria becomes a museum display, the character stops being a person and starts being a vocal instrument.

The subtext is also a claim of authorship. Opera can be dominated by music staff and star voices; staging is sometimes treated as polite wallpaper. Beresford asserts a director’s prerogative: the drama is the spine, and musical choices must bend toward it.

Context matters: late-20th-century opera increasingly borrowed acting realism from film and modern theater, while audiences simultaneously demanded “park and bark” vocal purity. Beresford is arguing for a third way: preserve the voice, but let it sweat, stumble, and want something. That’s where opera stops being impressive and becomes unbearable in the best sense.