How do you REALLY write about opera?

A surprisingly hard question.

This post originally appeared on The Opera Snob.

Recently, a huge figure in the other niche industry I write about (video games) suffered a huge loss. Ryan Davis was a huge figure in the video game industry, not just because he was amazingly funny but also because he seriously worked to define what video game journalism should be. It was (and is) an incredibly ambiguous field to work in, and he tried to cover the industry in a refined, intelligent, and personal way. It will be a great loss to the field to lose him.

Reflecting on his legacy caused me to wonder about opera, because at their hearts opera and video games are rather quite similar. They fall into the “arts and entertainment” umbrella, but are mostly regarded as niche areas of journalism that no one quite knows what to do with. Video games has a slightly easier time of it, because in addition to video games there’s an entire financial side of the business one could write about. You can write about company upheavals, stocks going up and down, and even about the technology behind the newest games coming out this year. But what is the right way to write about opera?