The last time you unintentionally trod on your cat’s tail, you might have heard an A above high C,

but for a human to generate this note on cue, a mix of intense training, good genes, and pure willpower is required.

All opera hounds are barking with delight because, according to all known sources, coloratura soprano

Audrey Luna is the first person of that kind to appear on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in its 137-year existence. Listen to the NPR clip that follows.

The unusual note is seen by some purists as a tacky ploy by composer Thomas Adès. His latest opera,

The Exterminating Angel, which is inspired by the Luis Buñuel film, has a score that also includes tiny 1/32-size violins,

two pebbles, a wooden salad bowl, a door, and an electronic instrument from 1928 called an ondes Martenot.

Others are in awe of Luna’s historically significant pipes. She enters the stage on that high note and returns on it moments later as Leticia,

a diva who shows up at a dinner party after Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti. (That one’s title role,

which Luna has performed, naturally, calls for stratospheric notes from its actors and has established records at opera houses all over the world.)