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

Has anyone noticed that they’ve been having a lot of opera questions on University Challenge recently. I’m quite chuffed because I usually answer Puccini to all of them so invariably get one right.

Last year I saw a live transmission from Covent Garden of Carmen. It was a modern production and had mixed reviews. Comments from members of the worldwide audiences were also mixed. Those, like me who weren't experience opera goers generally liked it whereas the opera fans did not.

I have a friend who is a music critic and was chatting to him the differences of opinion. He hated it but then he is a Wagner fanatic who regularly goes to Bayreuth. My opinion of Wagner - nice tunes shame about the singing.

I really hated opera until the time I actually went to see one. It was the opening of the season (not Glyndebourne exactly!) and I was invited in an official capacity. I went along for the champagne reception and hoped to slip away quietly at the first opportunity.

It was Così fan tutte performed in the open air, one of those low-budget productions performed by good singers past their sell-by date or promising young singers on the up, with sets that cost, oooh, tens of pounds! But by the end I was still sitting there as the applause finally died down, mesmerised.

It wasn't long before I was mainlining Wagner CDs, although I wouldn't recommend that for a beginner. If I had to take to their first opera somebody who claimed not to like opera I;d probably choose Tosca: it's comparatively short, it's got a good strong story and some magnificently hummable tunes including one in particular that tends to wriggle in the head for a week afterwards.

I wouldn't bother with the rest of this episode by the way. It's mostly a stage show.

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.

“Che gelida manina “, possibly my favourite?

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

Sorry Baggs that last comment was for you.

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.

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

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

I like Gilbert and Sullivan.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I am soooo ignorant.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

PamelaJ. Maybe!