From an interview with Marianne Lipanovich in San Francisco Cultural Voice back in 2011.
“I watch the X Factor, and it’s terrible. You can go to Juilliard any year and hear and see much more talented and beautiful singers. . . .
“I heard Piers Morgan — he’s universally a laughingstock here — on CNN. He’s so ignorant. He said opera was for rich, upper-class kids. I was shouting at the TV. We did Don Carlos, 10 shows with 4,000 people at each show. That’s 40,000 people for one opera. . . .
“I worry we won’t have opera houses, though. Covent Garden had a slogan a few years ago: ‘Everyone Needs Opera.’ They don’t. We just have to have enough people.”