ELO, Lyrics:
Rockaria.

Just got back from the downtown palais
Where the music was so sweet
It knocked me right back in the alley
I'm ready, yea, yea, yea, I'm ready,
Wo, wo, wo, I'm ready
And I'm really gonna rock tonight.

Sweet little lady sings like a songbird
And she sings the opera like you ain't never heard,
But she ain't ready,
No, no, no, she ain't ready
No, no, no, she ain't ready,
And she ain't gonna rock & roll

CHORUS
She's sweet on Wagner,
I think she'd die for Beethoven,
She loves the way Puccini lays down a tune,
And Verdi's always creeping from her room

Come on I'll show you how to sing the blues
Now baby, come on over you got nothin' to lose,
Are you ready, hey, hey, hey are you ready
Ooh, ooh, ooh, are you ready
I wanna show you how to rock and roll.

Now listen here baby she, said to me
Just, meet me at the opera house at a quarter to three,
'Cos I'm ready, yea, yea, yea, I'm ready,
Woo, hoo, hoo, I'm ready,
I'm gonna show you how to sing the blues.

CHORUS -- repeat

Far, far away the music is playing.

Well we were reelin' and a rockin' all through the night,
Yea we were rockin' at the opera house until the break of light,
And the orchestra were playin' all Chuck Berry's greatest tunes.
And the singers in the chorus all got off on singing blues,
And as the night grew older everybody was as one,
The people on the streets came runnin' in to join in song
Just to hear the opera singer singin' rock & roll so pure,
I thought I saw the mayor there but I wasn't really sure,
But it's alright.

Jeff Lynne
From the 1976 LP, A New World Record.

Facts:
The very beginning of Rockaria! from the album A New World Record features Mary Thomas, an opera singer, singing "Aah, fern, wiet'r in die ferne, man hört man hört die Musik" which roughly translates to "far, far away, the music is playing" (which Jeff sings later in English during the song's bridge before the final and ending verse). As is heard on the album, she starts the performance with the opening line, then briefly says "Oops!" as if she messed up, then continues normally. This "oops" bit was not actually how she performed the song, but instead was an edited joke by Jeff Lynne from her practice take. She apparently didn't mind and thought the edit was rather amusing. The UK single and several compilations edit off the "oops" bit.