Opera is not my life, though perhaps it has been in the past. I do not sing. I've met fans -- amateurs -- who spend half their evenings at some live event or other. (Judging by the internet, they're not wild outliers.) I doubt I've ever topped fifty in a year: the compulsion ebbs and flows, as do external circumstances. Many of my friends are peripherally interested in the art; others more interested I see infrequently.
Still, the operatic stage seems to me an exemplary place, that is to say rewarding to approach. The rest follows.
