Not to mention that the majority of operatic sopranos could strip paint off a battleship with their voices alone.

That said, if I must listen to opera, I find Wagner more listenable than most, not because the opera factors are improved, but because his music is wonderful. I don't have any actual operatic recordings, and I usually skip the fifth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony because the chorale from Schiller's Ode to Joy makes me wince, but I have have two CDs of Wagner overtures.