[adrtessier]

I was coming here to also recommend "How to Listen To and Understand Opera". For the longest time I could not figure out opera at all, and even when I thought I understood it, I learned that I quickly did not.

Learning (or, for some, tolerating until they "get") opera requires a very different frame of reference than learning pop music, or even understanding subgenres of more popular genres. It is one of the more difficult concepts I have had to wrap my head around for some reason.

Out the other side of it, though, I am happy I gave it a go. As an example, the San Francisco Opera is a great company, and as opera patrons age into oblivion these institutions will be finding themselves without an audience if younger generations do not take the time to give opera a go. It is not what most people think; everyone I have run into in the opera house has been courteous, and I haven't detected a hint of snobbery. A night at the opera costs you about as much as seeing a major film, and the sound is pretty magical.