He remembered his mother taking him to the opera once. It was an experience he hoped never to repeat in life and, man y years on, he had been successful in not doing so again. The opera was sung in English but he felt that only made it worse, for if was was sung in the original French or Italian he could have focused on the unknown words taking his mind off the voices he found so purely grating. But when you know what they are singing, each note is a separate punishment in an afternoon of torture.