As my own operatic tastes are broad, watch this space for discussion of many works beyond the usual warhorses. Some operas employ wordplay to color their characterizations or comedy.
Some operatic characters have nationalities distinctly at odds with others in their cast.
If you like these articles, there are more articles available. If you like these, there are more discussions available. Online A expansion of the Met's Opera News magazine. Contains news and reviews, with lots of photos. This is a site that contains its own sub-pages as well as links to libretti and scores, source texts, performance histories, synopses, discographies, composer bios, librettist bios, opera companies, singers' own home pages and their fan pages, and reviews.