I first heard Handel's Messiah in college, then Water Music, and I found it so wonderful that I began to learn more about classical music.
I realized that I already recognized a lot of pieces that I'd heard on cartoons. Bugs Bunny soundtracks included segments of The Barber of Seville, the William Tell Overture,a little Rossini and even Wagner. (Remember Elmer Fudd singing "kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit" to Flight of the Valkyries?)
Mom contributed too. When we were elementary school age, she mailed off boxtops from chicken noodle soup and got storybook recordings of Sleeping Beauty and I heard segments from The Sleeping Beauty Suite from Tchaikovsky. I loved Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and when I memorized that recording I also internalized the soundtrack which included the most wonderful segments of Sheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)
I attribute my earliest exposure to Opera to quiet Saturday afternoons at Monty's Jewellery Store(please note the Canadian spelling) I would be doing some boring job like dusting, and Mr Savinsky would be repairing watches and listening to Tannhauser....
I am grateful to Providence for this early (though inadvertent) exposure to great music! Now my children appreciate it and call it "brain music"
