So it's Nessum Dorma (None shall Sleep) from the opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini and remains one of the greatest of tenor arias of all time. It was popularised as the theme song of BBC television's coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup sung by Luciano Pavarotti.
Then there are arias like:
Flower Duet from Deilibe's opera Lakme which was used as background music on the British Airways face made of people ad.
The Anvil Chorusfrom Verdi's opera Il Trovatore a fantastic rousing piece that has been used in movies and television shows world wide, including Bad Santa.
The Habaneraand The Toreador Song from Bizet's Carmen heard frequently on radio, in movies and television shows.
And not forgetting the famous duet In the Depths of The Templefrom Bizet's other loved opera The Pearl Fishers, used in Peter Weir's Gallipoli.
The power of opera has been demonstrated by the smash hit album released by South Auckland Samoan brothers Pene and Amitai Pati and their cousin Moses Mackay, Sole3 Mio album. It toppled Lorde from the peak of the album charts.
The three young singers, Pene and Amitai (tenors) and Moses (baritone) were all former students from the past three years of the Wanganui New Zealand Opera School.
They began as tiny boys who were all encouraged to sing at church, at home and around the rest homes where their parents worked as caregivers .
Pene once said: "I'm sure my dad thought we were the Samoan Von Trapp Family singers."
The three are now studying with acclaimed vocal coach Dennis O'Neill, who is teaching and lecturing at the opera school this year.
Mr O'Neill said earlier that the young trio were a phenomenon and it was incredible they had been heard singing in around the pubs in Cardiff to raise funds for their fees and rent, and were signed up by the Universal Music Group (IMG).
"Their voices are quite beautiful," Mr O'Neill said.
But for a young opera singer to take their voice to the heights of grand opera involves serious commitment, rigorous physical training, specialised voice teachers and hours a day of practice.
As Mr O'Neill said, if a young person trains to become a doctor then a medical specialist until they are 30 they have written proof of their qualification.
"But by the time an opera singer is 30 - and it takes that long to prepare for principal operatic roles - they have to prove it with their voice.
"There's no written qualification to hand over."
A young opera singer is like a young athlete, they must be super physically fit and follow a physical regime everyday, warm up through a workout of swimming, running, yoga ... sometimes all three.
Like an athlete after a warm-up is concentrating on specific sets of muscles so does the young opera singer by taking stringent care of their chest, throat and neck muscles.
To sing opera is a physical process (in layman's language) the chest must held up, bum tucked under, stomach muscles taut, facial muscles prepared and flexed ... it's all these supporting muscles that open the way for the voice to flow. For the young opera student they have hours and years of work ahead of them with no guarantee they'll make into the highly competitive world of opera.
Though some people think opera is a rarefied world where divas have hefty breasts, wear a viking helmet and carry a spear, the opera arena is every bit as tough and uncompromising as the international sports fields.
Opera singers come in all sizes like sportsmen, who are not all like muscle-bound, thick-necked rugby players.
New Zealand has produced some amazing sportsmen and women but we can also lay claim to some of the world's finest opera singers including Inia Te Wiata, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Malvina Major, Sir Donald McIntyre, Heather Begg, Patrick Power, Conal Coad, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and, more recently, Jonathon Lemallu and Simon O'Neill.
And public reaction to operatic-style singers on talent shows, specifically Britain's Got Talent, has excited not only the audience and the judges but the whole world more than once.
In 2007 Welsh tenor Paul Potts, 43, won the talent show singing (here it is again) Puccini's aria Nessum Dorma and the crowd literally went wild.
Judge Simon Cowell produced a film that was released last year titled One Chance telling the story of small fat Welsh boy who loved to sing as soon as he could talk.
Scottish operatic singer Susan Boyle, 53, also fired the public imagination on Britain's Got Talent in 2009 on the show with her powerful mezzo-soprano voice singing I had a Dream from Les Miserables.
Both Potts and Boyle have produced albums which are much loved by the public.
And last but not least there are operatic groups like Il Divo, Il Vollo and Amici Forever all on the popular CD selling circuit ... so chaps opera is everywhere in one form or another.
However, there is, unfortunately, that central core of people who subscribe to all the negatives of hypercritical snobbery, precious attitudes and the "we know what we're talking about, we're not plebs" when it comes to great music.
But just to put it all into perspective here's some famous opera quotes;
"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings."
Robbie Burns.
"Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive."
Moliere.
And from opera legend Maria Callas;
"An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down.
"It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I have left the opera house."
In case you're not wholly convinced, then try and catch the opera school riverboat concert next Thursday night (January 16) at 7.30pm.
It will be staged on board the paddle steamer Waimariemoored at the jetty.
The audience is invited to take blankets and sit on the grass, special screens will be set up for close ups of the performers who will be the 22 opera students and will feature former student and international tenor star Simon O'Neill. Tickets $35.
And he will be singing Nessum Dorma.