Last week Andrew and I had the opportunity to attend part of Rochester Lyric Opera’s Chamber Opera Festival . We had a fantastic time experiencing two operas we had never heard of: Gallantry (based on 1950’s soap operas) and The Apothecary, a love quadrangle by Hayden.

We were reminded of how totally fun opera can be. Rochester Lyric definitely lived up to their motto of providing “opera for everyone”, performing beautiful, quality work for a diverse, lively crowd of all ages.

I hear people talk about how you have to be educated and knowledgeable to enjoy opera; you need to do research to understand it. That may have been true in the past when there were no super titles, but with them, the argument simply does not hold up.

But when we say that opera requires all this preparation and education, we put up a barrier between the potential audience and opera in general. People already feel intimidated by opera’s perceived inaccessibility. We all need to break down that wall, not reinforce it.

The thing is, once you start experiencing opera, YOU DO want to learn more, but not knowing doesn't cut into your fun. Not knowing when Mimi and Violetta are going to die doesn't hurt your first experience of those operas… though knowing certainly does enhance your enjoyment along the way as you explore the music further. Not knowing every leitmotif doesn't interrupt your first Ring. But learning about them as you listen to more Rings is really exciting!

It’s all about the journey. It might be like a 13 cities in 10 days bus tour or something more intense like a semester abroad. Or maybe that journey starts out just like a day trip when you try a Met Live in HD performance out of the blue with no prep. There’s no right or wrong on this! Sometimes I have the time to really delve into something ahead of time and other times, like with Prince Igor last week, I just show up. Afterwards, I was inspired to spend some time learning about the history behind the piece – it was fascinating – but not knowing all that information ahead of time didn't stop my being riveted to the production as it unfolded.

So, if you are one of those people a bit intimidated by opera, I maintain that is not how opera is supposed to be. Jump in let the experience of music and emotion just wash over you. You won’t regret it…