The inexplicable anguish of Italian Opera (Lamb)
October 14th, 2007 | Published in Music, Quotes
I have sat through an Italian Opera, till, for sheer pain, and inexplicable anguish, I have rushed out into the noisiest places of the crowded streets, to solace myself with sounds, which I was not obliged to follow, and get rid of the distracting torment of endless, fruitless, barren attention!
–Charles Lamb (1775–1834), “A Chapter on Ears,” in The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (1994), p. 167