Eh. I took Little Pianola to hear The Marriage of Figaro, over three hours, when she was 12, and she was rapt throughout, even though she’s not particularly musical. Wolfgang was a magic man.
See Amadeus.. Serious Mozart people scoff at it (“He was NOT A MORON!!!”), but it’s a good gateway drug for newbies (“Hey, this is some DAMN GOOD STUFF, for a moron!”).
Also convinced the Ukulele Lady to come to the Met and take in Parsifal with me two years ago…over FIVE hours, which was her idea of Hell on earth. But between Wagner’s arguably finest music and the amazeballs story, she has never complained to me afterward. Kundry is the most fascinating yet enigmatic female character in all of opera.
(First person who quotes Mark Twain on Wagner gets a fat lip, got it, buster?)
Search for videos of Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts and his Omnibus shows. He’s always engaging. If they’re a little too advanced for you, feel free to leave them for later.
Start perhaps with his “Anatomy of a Symphony Orchestra” - YouTube
or “What is classical music?” (part 1 of 4) - YouTube
I’ll keep musical recommendations to a minimum, because there are lots already posted here and in the other classical threads.
Franz Lehar, an aria (with English subtitles) from his operetta “Giuditta” sung by Anna Netrebko (I guarantee you’ll like it :D): “Meine lippen, sie kussen so heiss” - YouTube
Wagner, overture to his opera Tannhäuser - YouTube
It’s not as sophisticated as some other music, perhaps. But recently, I’ve been impressed by how dramatic and effective it is.
My favorites are Mussorgsky and Holst. I don’t know much about them, but I know what I like.
I’m like you - I love listening to it but I don’t know much about it. And frankly, I don’t feel the need to study it. I just want to listen and enjoy. This time of year is when I find myself turning on the classical radio channel in the car. It just seems to match the weather.
Felix Mendelssohn : The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave) - Overture
try this - it’s the most amazing and exhilarating piece of music I’ve ever heard
Wagner’s music isn’t as bad as it sounds.
I was brought up on classical music, so to me it’s the default option. I like baroque, but I also like Schubert, Brahms and Sibelius - and here’s a grand version of Sibelius’s Finlandia from the Last Night of the Proms last month
If you want to explore and understand more, you might get some interesting insights from BBC Radio 3 and theirpodcasts
A not so bad place to start is here.
Yale lecture series on how to appreciate classical music.
Not everything in there is all that useful, but he does go into what you should be listening for, how to pick out melodies and harmonies, and all that. He plays music and annotates it…“And here come the tubas…”, “now we go to 4-4 time”, “Here comes a key change.” to give you a better idea of what is going on.
Plus he plays quite a bit of music in the class that I found enjoyable, and turned me on to other composers I hadn’t heard of before.
Had never heard of Mussorgsky prior to watching, now ‘pictures at an exhibition’ is on a loop in my house many days, for some reason, it is great cleaning music.
Doubt this is actually opera, despite the title, obviously more of a rock rendition, but works for me: Nightwish "The Phantom Of The Opera" with lyrics - YouTube
I keep seeing this limping crow…
AGGGGHHHH! Don’t listen to Art Music as a background to vacuuming. LISTEN to it.
I love classical music with one big exception: I can’t stand violin solos. To me the violin was meant to be played wioth 99 other violins, some cellos and violas and maybe a banjo or ukeklele or two. NOT by itself.
“Damned scraping” is what my wife and I call most solo violin pieces.
I got started late, and now it is most of what I listen to. My goal is to listen to all of Beethoven, even Wellington’s Victory, and I’m almost there.
My issue is that I’m almost totally tone deaf.
I found that Robert Greenberg’s Great Course CDs very helpful. I’ve listened to the Orchestral Music Series and the Beethoven Symphony Series, and it helped me understand a lot more of what was going on. I might get the String Quartet series some day if the price goes down.
I’m getting better. I can now listen to PDQ Bach and get at least some of the jokes.
I love it. I listen to classical music every day. I don’t enjoy opera, with the exceptions of certain arias and chorals. What I would like to recommend you to listen to is preclassical opera. In preclassical opera (and choirs), the human voice functions very much like any other instrument, and the effect is a sublime one in my opinion. I’m not a Christian, or a believer for that matter, but I’m mesmerized by ancient church choral music.
I listen to a wide range of classical music. Of the nine favorite stations on my Internet radio, five play classical music - the others play jazz, rock, English news and French news. I change them depending on my mood and/or the type of work I perform on the computer.
Plus, for many reasons the best way to deal with traffic jam is to listen to classical music.
that’s where I first heard it too 
- my dad had a recording of the music which he dug out for me when he knew I liked it.
also, OP Bill Baily did a great introduction to classical music. he’s a comedian and multi-instrumentalist
I don’t just listen to classical music; I perform it (as part of a choir admittedly, but a world-class calibre one). It’s a wonderful thing.
I already mentioned the Dorling Kindersley on Classical Music book in the other thread, so instead I’ll mention the Ten Pieces project the BBC has been doing to introduce young children to classical repertoire. It’s all done in short snippets (either excerpts or just short pieces), it’s intended to be introductory rather than comprehensive and of course the language will be aimed at schoolchildren rather than adults, but nonetheless it’s as good a place to begin as any AND they work in new works as well as the old warhorses of the repertoire.
They’ve recently released the info for Ten Pieces III, but you can see the full films (or individual sections) for the previous two at the above link as well. Have a watch/listen - if you can get past not being the intended audience, you might find a few pieces that intrigue you enough to explore further.
I agree. I’m also not a Christian, but I enjoy pre-modern choral church music.
Two things about listening to it, though.
Nice. Andrew Rangell played this (the Egon Petri piano adaptation) on his wonderful CD “A Recital of Intimate Works.”