The magic comes from the addition of scenery, staging, lights, costumes, and dance. Together, the music we hear and the magic we see tell a story. Opera is an irrational, fantastic, improbable world with its own logic and realities, and, for someone experiencing it for the first time, it can be confusing and even a little ridiculous. What is important to remember is the particular power of music to evoke a time or place. Its stories involve gods, peasants, soldiers, animals, gypsies, kings, courtesans, the dead returned from their graves, even the devil himself.
Characters can be cruel, jealous, loving, spiteful, self-sacrificing, or vengeful.
In fact, every emotion humankind has felt or imagined and every possible sort of relationship can be found in opera. A brother can be in love with his sister, teacups can converse, animals can outwit their masters, and birds can tell secrets. Anything is possible so long as it is sung. While the popular conception exists that operas are uniformly large, elaborate productions, operas actually come in many shapes and sizes. They can be sung to the accompaniment of a piano and a few instruments, or to that of an orchestra of over a hundred.