Am I unusual to find opera excruciatingly difficult to listen to?

Maybe Lucca, those of us that don’t enjoy the caterwauling have particularly sensitive hearing? The sound is in the ears of the individual.
I have been to opera and enjoyed it but those vibrating women almost hurt.

I haven’t heard the ‘catawaling’singer in question but there is a condition which I have, called recruitment, which means that certain sounds, often loud, actually hurt.

Everybody can have their own preferences, that's for sure, and I haven't heard the singer you're talking about PamelaJ1 so I won't comment on her. But it has occurred to me that music and singing isn't always meant to be "nice". I don't get modern jazz but I listen to flamenco. Proper flamenco, not the tourist stuff you get on the costas. It's certainly not pretty but a good singer can stop me in my tracks, even when I don't know what they are singing about.

If it was the lady singing in Lucca , I saw this programme a few years ago and if memory serves she sang “”o mio babbino caro” ? I seem to remember thinking it was a lovely moment.

PamelaJ. Maybe!

Does anyone remember Yma Sumac the Peruvian contralto who could manage 8 octaves ? Fabulous.

And if you read it back to front, she was Amy Camus!

I love opera; my favourite is Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. At school we performed Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, in which I had a small solo part as the first witch. Sometimes it's what you're brought up with; my DM would never have pop music on the radio, we had classical music and the Third Programme, and she would sometimes take me to concerts. Remember going to my first performance, some time in the mid fifties, of 'Messiah', with the late great singers Isobel Bailey and Owen Brannigan.

There is little in the way of caterwauling in La Boheme.

Yes that's what she sang Lucca. I have to say it didn't sound like caterwauling to me.

Can someone tell us what the program is please? I'd love to see it myself.

It’s very ignorant to refer to opera as “noise” to be subjected to. Composers of genius have produced intricate scores which give great pleasure to so many.
My AC grew up with my passion for opera, but prefer rock, pop and crossover music. I still think they would have some respect for this particular art form, even if it’s not their cup of tea.

I am soooo ignorant.

All music is noise. Some people are extremely sensitive to noise of all kinds, however much genius went into making it. When I refer to music as noise that is what I mean.

There is also the fact that, to some ears, high pitched operatic singing is actually 'painful' in the sense of being highly distressing to hear.

It's non-deliberate ignorance not to know this. Preferring not to hear music one finds painful in the above sense has nothing to do with ignorance.

There is a young woman who sings in the street sometimes where I live, sort of busking I suppose, and she sometimes sings operatic arias. It stops people in their tracks (and makes my day that’s for sure. ) as she does it pretty well.

Good for her and good for them. It's only a question of taste after all, like preferring white wine over red, or Assam tea over Darjeeling. My point is not to judge people because they express a distaste for operatic music. They might well like something much more esoteric or much more easy-going. No-one is wrong and, as the thread title intimated, opera music is "excrutiating" to some just as, say, jalapeño chilis might be to someone else.

You're quite right of course Baggs. My husband enjoys classical music but finds some sopranos hard on the ears. We are all entitled to our opinions.

I like Gilbert and Sullivan.

I just love Pavarotti singing anything. Listening to him sort of got me into arias. I don’t like Alfie Boe,s voice , not a patch on the late great Pavarotti IMO

Thank you for introducing me to Nada te turbe, nadateturbe ??. Beautiful sound.

You've listened? I'm glad you like it. Thank you. I used to circle dance and we did a meditative dance to this to finish the session. I have it on a cd called Laudate Omnes Gentes.

Sorry Baggs that last comment was for you.

Lilypops

I just love Pavarotti singing anything. Listening to him sort of got me into arias. I don’t like Alfie Boe,s voice , not a patch on the late great Pavarotti IMO

And me ! Nobody like him

“Che gelida manina “, possibly my favourite?

Can I just introduce you to "This American Life" which is a radio show and podcast. It's sometimes funny, sometimes looks as items in the news, international affairs, random events and small (and large) issues around day to day living.

This episode starts with the story of an opera singer, Carin Gilfry, who was working from a hotel (recording a children's story onto tape) and accidentally locked herself in the closet. I'm not sure if this link is the whole show or not. The bit about her is in the prologue.

www.thisamericanlife.org/528/the-radio-drama-episode

I hope that at least some of you like it.