I’ve touched on almost every genre over my 1,200+ Songs of the Day but to this point I’ve never featured any opera. This week, no doubt to the consternation of many, I will remedy that.

I’m not an opera fan, by any means… the only complete opera I’ve ever sat through was a Broadway staging of La Boheme by Baz Luhrman. That was a beautiful piece of work, but you won’t catch me dropping the $20 to catch the next IMAX showing of Turandot at my local Muvico.

Being unschooled in the art of opera, I consider complete operas about 95% filler and 5% transcendent. The transcendent moments are the classic arias that even opera haters are likely passably familiar with through film and TV. It is those arias that I will feature this week.

Kicking things off is Maria Callas singing ‘O mio babbino caro’ from Puccini’s opera Gianni Schicchi. This is the first time in my life I’ve encountered the phrase Gianni Schicchi and yet this is one of the most famous and beloved arias of all time. That kind of proves my point about the value of whole operas.

When he sat down to do his Gianni Schicchi thing, this three minutes is all Puccini ever needed to write.