From Nicolas Cage’s character in Moonstruck to Frasier Crane in "Cheers" and "Fraiser," we look at film and television’s greatest opera lovers. Check out Olivia Giovetti's list and share your own favorites.

The Metropolitan Opera opened its season Monday with the comedy 'L'Elisir d'Amore' in a new production by Bartlett Sher. The opera was "played straight and literal," writes David Patrick Stearns.

"More than a few stage directors seem to think that the overture is theirs to play with, creating stage business that happens while the overture is being performed," complains Fred Plotkin.

Cult classics in inspire rabid fandom that familiar works never achieve. Blogger Olivia Giovetti examines why, and considers cult operas such as Wozzeck, From the House of the Dead, La Périchole, Vanessa and Prince Igor.

In tough financial times, "we, as audiences, need to express faith and solidarity with our opera companies, encouraging them to be daring and creative and supporting them in their efforts," writes Fred Plotkin.

"In listening to Tempest, Bob Dylan’s newest album which dropped last Tuesday, I can’t help but be reminded of Stravinsky," writes Olivia Giovetti. Indeed, Dylan's songs frequently aspire to art-song sophistication.

There are many singers, especially young ones, who go beyond their physical and mental limits because they feel they must do so to please a conductor or manager, writes Fred Plotkin in this cautionary tale.

Like an eccentrically orbiting comet, Einstein on the Beach is again the object of fascination in New York. David Patrick Stearns reviews Sunday's performance.

Master classes are one of the most fascinating aspects of the process of taking talented young singers and trying to polish and mold them while allowing them to retain what makes them special, writes Fred Plotkin.

The Second City comedy troupe is teaming with the Lyric Opera of Chicago to produce short films about a therapist named Dr. Opera who counsels famous opera characters. Olivia Giovetti gives her review.

Pop music has addressed the concept of freedom in many different ways, writes Fred Plotkin. "In opera, freedom is described in ways that are more indirect but also more profound."

With the fall political conventions now over, blogger Olivia Giovetti reflects on the similarities between these staged spectacles and those involving arias, divas and high musical drama.

From a Mario Lanza tribute to a new Don Giovanni, there are also a number of recordings to devour before winter. Here are ten albums blogger Olivia Giovetti is most looking forward to hearing this fall.

"There are singers who touch audience members very deeply for any number of reasons," writes Fred Plotkin. "For me, one of those was the Austrian soprano Leonie Rysanek."

This fall, Emperor Titus returns to the Met, Philip Glass returns to BAM, Simon Keenlyside returns to Berg and VOX returns to City Opera. Here are our picks for the upcoming New York opera season.

In operas, the moon has come to signal lunacy in mad scenes, represent expressions of love and suggest the darker forces within characters. Blogger Fred Plotkin considers why the moon is such a force.

In a few days, if customary schedules are upheld, we will learn the names of the recipients of the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors. Blogger Fred Plotkin names artists who have been overlooked or deserve recognition.

Joan of Arc has been portrayed as a villainess by Shakespeare, an angel by George Bernard Shaw, and has seen her share of operatic representation, figuring into more than 20 works, writes Olivia Giovetti.

Richard Tucker would have been 99 on Tuesday. Blogger Fred Plotkin writes that "even when he was 60, his singing was fresh, musical and expressive and audiences loved him."