New York Public Radio Music Director George Preston made that comparison while telling XFANZ about Vivid contract star Savanna Samson's upcoming appearance on The Tristan Mysteries, a weeklong examination of the classic Wagner opera Tristan and Isolde that will air from April 28 to May 4. New York residents can of course dial up the station at 93.9 FM, and the show will be streamed live and offered on-demand at WNYC.org.

Samson popped up on Preston's radar about two years ago when he ran into his friend, creative director and art director Jordan Schaps, who produced photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' book XXX: 30 Porn Star Portraits, which features side-by-side photos of adult stars fully clad and in the buff.

Preston asked Schaps who his favorite adult star was. Schaps told Preston about a slightly annoyed Samson who showed up for her photo shoot. Preston recounted the meeting.

"Jordan met [Samson], and she said, 'So you're the one who's going to make me miss The Rake's Progress,'" Preston said, adding that Samson's affinity for Igor Stravinsky's opera laid bare the intensity of her passion. Casual opera fans might name La Boheme or Carmen as their favorites, but only a true believer would go for a deep cut like Rake's.

But Preston didn't decide to ask Samson onto his station until he made the "opera is porn" realization.

"Singing and sex are two things that almost everyone does," he said. "But there are only a few professionals who do it for the general public. These performers have unusual physical endowments that they've enhanced through technique and training so they can perform any time."

The similarities don't end there, though. Preston said that more and more operas end when the thin lady sings -- apparently gastric bypass surgery and weight loss are on the rise, giving the opera singers of the world something else in common with adult stars: they all want to look hot.

That's where Samson figures in, but Preston said he's not bringing Samson on his show because she looks hot. Rather, he wants to talk with her about how hot opera can sound.

"In opera and porn, their bodies are truly their instruments," he said. "And they both share something that's really soul-baring with the public. And there's no getting around the fact that many opera voices are very sexy."

Enter Savanna Samson to talk about Tristan and Isolde, Richard Wagner's opera about the adulterous love affair between the title characters.

"[Tristan and Isolde] is all about romantic, obsessive sex," Preston said. "I'm a huge fan. It's really the first X-rated opera -- the first one where the sex is in the opera, in the music."

As an opera buff and a professional practitioner of sex, Samson should be right at home discussing that.

Samson will appear on The Tristan Mysteries segment titled, "The Sexual Mystery: What Can You Hear in the Music?" Her segment airs May 3 from 7:30-8:30 p.m. EDT on WNYC 93.9 FM in New York.