I have an opposite (something ruined by a song). I was once beginning a nice late evening with a lady whose favourite piece of romantic music (see that thread) was the last 20 minutes of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier that someone had given her on a tape. Now the last 20 minutes of DR is perhaps the most beautiful, uttery romantic, seductive, shimmery music ever written -- 3 sopranos singing exquisitely. In theory, there really is nothing better and it has a nice shape to it, and so on. You can just wallow in it, on one condition.
The only problem is if you know anything about what they are singing (in Austrian German) -- which this lady didn't, but I did (a bit like Rick's Wedding Story, another thread). It is an utterly tragic blending of an older woman losing her young lover to a younger woman, his guilt at leaving her, the younger woman's uncertainty about whether she can match up, and about a million other poignant thoughts all woven together: aging, death, the loss of perfection, stoicism in the face of heartsick pain. It is heart-rending adult music -- maybe the only truly adult opera music ever written. The lady in question had sort of gotten used to using this music as a warm up, while it made me feel suicidal. After about 5 minutes of this, we had a big fight about whether it was going to stay on or not. That was that for that. Still love the music; still makes me feel suicidal.
yours, Peter T.