You know more opera than you think you do. That soaring voice in the car commercial? Opera. The dramatic music when the villain appears in a film? Probably opera. The tune you hum in the shower but can’t quite place? There’s a decent chance that’s opera too.

Here are five arias that have escaped the opera house and embedded themselves in popular culture. You’ve almost certainly heard all of them. Now you’ll know what they are.

1. “Nessun Dorma” from Turandot by Puccini

This is the big one. The aria that Luciano Pavarotti turned into a global anthem during the 1990 FIFA World Cup. If you’ve watched any sporting event, any talent show, or any film that wants to signal “triumphant moment,” you’ve heard it.

The context: Prince Calaf has solved Princess Turandot’s riddles and is waiting for dawn, when she must either learn his name or marry him. “Nessun dorma” means “none shall sleep” — nobody in the kingdom is allowed to rest until the princess discovers his identity. The aria builds from a quiet, almost meditative opening to one of the most spine-tingling climaxes in all of music: “Vincerò!” — I will win.

Why it works outside opera: It’s essentially a song about refusing to give up, which is why it maps so perfectly onto sports. The melody is gorgeous and the emotional arc is universal. You don’t need to know a word of Italian to feel it.

2. “Habanera” from Carmen by Bizet

“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” — love is a rebellious bird. If you’ve heard a sultry, slightly dangerous-sounding mezzo-soprano singing in French, there’s a very good chance it was this.

Carmen’s entrance aria is one of the most recognisable melodies in Western music. It’s been in everything from Up to beer commercials. The descending chromatic line is instantly identifiable, and the lyrics — about how love can’t be tamed — have a modern energy that keeps the piece relevant.

Bizet wrote Carmen in 1875, and it was considered scandalous. The Paris audience was horrified by a working-class woman who refused to be respectable. Now she’s one of the most performed characters in opera. The culture caught up.

3. “La donna è mobile” from Rigoletto by Verdi

You’ve heard this at Italian restaurants. You’ve heard it in television commercials. You may have even heard someone whistle it on the street. The melody is absurdly catchy — Verdi knew it, and reportedly kept it secret from the cast until the last possible moment so it wouldn’t leak before opening night.

The Duke of Mantua sings it, and the words — “woman is fickle” — are deeply ironic because he’s the most fickle character in the entire opera. He’s a womaniser singing about how women can’t be trusted. Verdi was doing something clever here: giving the villain a tune so infectious that the audience can’t help but sing along, even as the drama turns dark.

It’s three minutes of pure melodic brilliance, and it’s been lodged in the collective consciousness for 170 years. Not bad for a throwaway-sounding drinking song.

4. “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi by Puccini

This one breaks hearts. A young woman, Lauretta, begs her father to let her marry the man she loves. “O my dear papa, I love him, he is handsome… I want to go to Porta Rossa to buy the ring. If my love were in vain, I would go to the Ponte Vecchio and throw myself in the Arno.”

Yes, she’s threatening to drown herself over a boy. Italian opera doesn’t do things by halves.

The aria is only about two and a half minutes long, but the melody — climbing, yearning, impossibly beautiful — has become one of the most used pieces of classical music in film and television. You’ll recognise it from A Room with a View, and it’s been a staple of talent shows and recitals ever since.

What most people don’t realise is that Gianni Schicchi is a comedy. A dark comedy about inheritance fraud, to be specific. This heartbreaking aria sits inside a farcical plot about a family trying to forge a dead man’s will. Puccini was a genius.

5. “The Flower Duet” from Lakmé by Delibes

Two soprano voices intertwining over a gently pulsing accompaniment. If you’ve flown British Airways at any point in the last 40 years, you know this piece — it’s been their advertising music since the 1980s.

The “Flower Duet” is sung by Lakmé and her servant Mallika as they gather flowers by a river. It’s peaceful, hypnotic, and almost impossibly pretty. The two voices weave around each other like — well, like vines. The metaphor writes itself.

Delibes’ opera Lakmé isn’t performed nearly as often as it should be, but this duet has taken on a life entirely beyond the opera house. It shows up in films, TV shows, spa playlists, and relaxation apps. Most people who hear it have no idea it’s from an 1883 French opera set in British-occupied India.

The gateway effect

Here’s why these arias matter beyond trivia. Every single one of them is a potential gateway. Someone hears “Nessun Dorma” at a football match, looks it up, listens to the full opera, and two years later they’re a subscriber at Opera Australia. I’ve seen it happen dozens of times.

Opera doesn’t have a quality problem. It has a familiarity problem. People think they don’t know any opera, so they assume it’s not for them. But they do know it. They just don’t know they know it.

So next time one of these pieces comes on in a commercial or a film, pay attention. You’re listening to some of the most powerful vocal music ever written. And there’s a lot more where it came from.