>> I don't much like opera, but I have a CD of "The best of the 3 tenors" which is phenomenal. I think an equivalent "best of the Sopranos" would drive me up a wall. I think of the tenor voice as an instruement, but the soprano as fingernails on a blackboard.
Try some Puccini, Mascagni or Leoncavallo. Very different stuff from Wagner or Verdi.
Here's some Puccini girl -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNKWzml7zlYAnd for some instrumental, try the intermezzo from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. (that was the opera at the end of Godfather III )
And for lurkers - if you don't know this piece, hear it before you decide how you feel about opera
http://videos.emule.com/play/the3tenors-carreras-domingo-pavarotti--nessun-dorma-(MDtcidMR_6I
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