Baritone Kyu Won Han says the best piece of advice he can give to opera newcomers is: read up.
"When you go for the first time, you don't know what they're saying and you're too busy looking at the stage and the subtitles ... it's too busy," he says. "If you read about (the show) before you go, then you can enjoy it much more."
Han should know about breaking into new scenes. The kind of opera he does is rooted in Western culture, but the 43-year-old baritone is part of a slew of talent that has come out of Asia in recent decades. Originally from Seoul, Han mentions that the South Korean love of karaoke makes the population particularly musical. And the amount of churches means that many singers get their starts in choirs.