"If a thing isn't worth saying, you sing it"

Pierre Beaumarchais’s observation, “If a thing isn’t worth saying, you sing it,” slyly pokes at the conventions of dramatic and operatic storytelling. At first glance, it seems paradoxical, after all, wouldn’t singing something imply it’s actually more important, not less? Yet, underneath the witty phrasing lies a pointed commentary on how art elevates the trivial, and how performance sometimes turns the mundane into spectacle.

Within many operas, musicals, or plays, characters break into song not solely to express the highest truths, but often to fill a moment, to smooth over awkwardness, or to delight the senses. Dialogue that might seem banal, even unnecessary when spoken, takes on new emotional resonance when set to melody. Song, with its rhythms, harmonies, and cadences, liberates expression from the everyday, granting even the most offhand remark a curious depth and beauty. Through music, artists grant value to fleeting thoughts and simple words precisely because of their transformation by artistry.

Beaumarchais, renowned for his sharp satirical wit, implicitly highlights a paradox of art: sometimes the packaging of an idea, its dramatic delivery, melodic phrasing, or theatrical flourish, imbues it with worth it never held as a mere statement. The phrase further teases the audience and creators alike about the conventions they readily accept. It gently mocks the tendency to embrace and elevate the trivial when set within an artistic frame, suggesting that we are often seduced less by the substance than by the style.

At a deeper level, these words invite reflection on the value we ascribe to communication itself. Perhaps life’s most joyful, memorable, or healing moments come not from grave pronouncements, but from play, humor, and artistry, where the act of singing, regardless of what is sung, makes the experience worth having after all.