My apartment has a new rule: I’m not allowed to listen to opera at night. It’s new partly because I recently played Tosca loud enough to wake my partner, and mostly because prior to last year, I never listened to opera, so there was no need for a ban.

That changed when Opera Philadelphia, under General Director and President Anthony Roth Costanzo, transformed the organization’s performance fees, lowering the starting ticket price to $11. I wasn’t an opera virgin — I had been to productions in college — but I wouldn’t have called myself a fan. Still, I love a deal, so last year, I bought tickets to every show and found myself transformed during the U.S. premiere of The Listeners, a contemporary opera by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek that arrested my imagination

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