I guess traditionally, you're supposed to know the plot of an opera before you see the thing. So a comic book rundown before the show would be like those Ikea cartoon instructions for assembling a shitty dresser.

But instead of a shitty dresser, an opera. And instead of an Allen wrench, more of that opera.

P. Craig Russel, a noted comic artist did a bunch of Opera as comics years ago, they're gorgeous. I suspect he wasn't the first, but he captures an aesthetic that made me, an Opera ignoramous, go see one.