... and this might not be the case for you, you might just hate the singing style, or find the music completely repulsive ... but I've noticed in my listening days that classical music in general is most 'shrieky' and 'grating' when listened to through headphones or in a place with a higher level of background noise.

I also find Opera mostly unenjoyable in 'audio only' format. This is usually because I don't pay close enough attention and lose track of the story and then I don't know what I'm listening too.

I guess what I'm saying is the best way to judge opera is to see it live or at least in some decent visual format (DVD for instance). I suppose in Kansas, actually going would be hard, but the MET opera does do 'Live in HD' shows at theatre around the country (I think tickets are 15$).


The reason I say it's not as 'shrieky' when watching it live is that classical music really is quite soft during live performance (compared to 'pop' music). The reason everyone sits quietly and turns their cell phone off is because even during a mezzo-forte (medium loud) sections, the cell phone ringer will be easily heard across the hall, (not to mention people coughing ... one of the few caveats of live classical music for me). Subsequently concert halls are extremely quiet and make great listening atmospheres for classical music.

The home however, there tends to be background noises and you have to turn the audio up to hear the soft parts and then once it breaks a certain decibel level it starts to grate, at least with piccolos and sopranos, not to mention the audio quality coming from the speakers may distort it some (my car's speakers have weird affects on piccolo sound, I hate listening to anything with a piccolo in my car).

Anyway, just saying