Not to be too self-congratulatory or anything, but I consider myself a pretty cultured person overall.

Derek Taylor putting on the character of Rodolfo.

I watch subtitled films and often I really enjoy them. I listen to world music, and sometimes I like that too. Hell, I read The New Yorker.

But I’ve never, despite much concerted effort, been able to really get into opera. I mean, it’s fine, I guess. I’ve been a couple times, though once was when I was in 8th grade, so it doesn’t really count. It’s just that it’s…opera.

I know. I pass the Harrison Opera House every day and I’m grateful to have it in Norfolk. And I know the myths about opera are the same that are aimed at, say, contemporary art, indie music or sushi (all of which I love). As with those things, I’m sure: once you give it a real shot, you love it forever.

So Jesse and I decided to give it a real shot. We were invited to attend the final dress rehearsal of La Bohème, which plays again tomorrow night and on Sunday for a matinee. Maybe it was seeing it with a full house of local school kids (a tradition at the Virginia Opera for their last run-through); or maybe it was watching it with stage director Julia Pevzner, who wittily talked us through the libretto; or maybe it was getting an inside view of the hustle and bustle of backstage during the performance, but I will say this: It was the perfect show to make me love and appreciate opera for all it’s worth.

Which brings me to…

How to Appreciate Opera: Number One

You must start with an opera that, if it were a movie, you’d go to see. Operas, like movies, fall into many genres. There are melodramas and comedies, operas about pirates and wars and fairies and real, everyday life. So, don’t watch King Lear your first outing if you prefer slapstick comedy. This season, for instance, Virginia Opera will also present Porgy and Bess, an American classic about African-American life in 1920s South Carolina, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a comic opera.

I myself am a romantic. And La Bohème, to my delight, is a story about young, penniless lovers trying to make it in an indifferent world, namely 1830s Paris. If you loved Moulin Rouge or Rent, which was based on La Bohème, you must see it.

Number Two

As Billy Joel so succintly put it: “Hot funk, cool punk, even if it’s old junk: It’s still rock and roll to me.” And with art, no matter if it’s opera, film, theater, dance or literature, it’s about stories. At their hearts operas are just “storytelling to music,” points out Assistant Stage Director Keturah Stickann, who feels opera “marries [her] love of theater with [her] love of dance.”

“You think about the storyline and how the things that are happening on the stage can affect you in your life,” agreed Joe Ellen Miller, who covers the role of Mimì, the female lead character.

As we all know, there are no new ideas, which leads to the point that all stories have been told and are in the end universal. The Cinderella story, the odyssey, the revenge… The themes that make up nearly every story are so few because in all the variations of the human experience, there are only so many things that happen to each and every one of us, things that no matter our life story we know just how that feels. No matter if it’s Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story or Carmen, nearly everyone can relate to a story of star-cross’d lovers.

Number Three

Let the music tell you that story. Don’t analyze it. Don’t try to figure out what who is saying exactly when. Though the English super titles running above the stage are extremely helpful, “It’s about just taking in the music and letting the actors onstage tell me what’s going on,” Artistic Administrator Andy Chugg told us.

And if it appeals to you but moments seem to pass you by, keep in mind…

Number Four

Go to the opera again. Go frequently. Like a beloved movie, an opera is “constantly evolving every time you see it,” said Chugg. “That’s why people see La Bohème 20, 30, 40 times.”

OK, we admit seeing La Bohème 40 times is probably excessive for the casual opera-goer. But in an opera performance there are a million things happening in concert together: the actors, the story, the orchestra, the stage. And every performance is different. Not only are the maestro’s, director’s and actors’ interpretations different from production to production, but as it goes with live performances, even with the same cast and artistic staff it’s different every time. Even from the tiniest change of inflection some spontaneous moment of magic can happen any time you see an opera.

But when it comes down to it, the ultimate key to appreciating opera is…

Number Five

Open yourself up to it.

“You have to approach it with an open mind,” said Lighting Director Ken Steadman.

“The music will ultimately tell you the story if you open your mind.”

Click here for a backstage, behind-the-scenes photo gallery at the Virginia Opera’s La Bohème.