Priscilla Richardson is columnist The Botetourt View. You can contact her at 981-3430 or via e-mail.

Priscilla Richardson

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• Column archive: Read Pricilla's previous columns from the former Neighbors section of The Roanoke Times.

How do you get a guy who loves car racing to enjoy opera? You just take him. This is according to Daleville's Rodney Short, Roanoke City Police Department employee and weekend freelancer covering autocross and drag racing. After all, opera has drama, thrilling music, and, for those who don't speak Italian, an English translation of every word projected over the top of the stage. Short lists opera along with all of his other "he man" hobbies, such as hiking the Appalachian Trail. Even if he did fall over a cliff a few weeks ago. No injury, except to his pride.

While living in Chicago, Short, 54, used an Internet dating service to meet up with his wife, Jan Smyth, also 54. Talk about modern electronics. How else would a Virginia-born man who majored in philosophy and religion in college meet up with an Ohioan who majored in philosophy and religion in college? To start their relationship, they met for coffee. "Our first date was an absolute flop," Short said. "He thought I was a nut case," Smyth added.

Undeterred, Short asked her out again for a movie -- on boxing -- and afterwards a piece of pie they divided between them. Then, on the third date for dinner, he forgot his wallet, so she had to cover the entire bill. But romance ruled and, other than still arguing over the split of that original piece of pie, they formed a happy marriage, the second for each.

So when Short got a job in this area, Smyth had no complaints about moving here. They both love the sporting as well as cultural advantages here.

Smyth had to look around for a job for herself, however, and her good luck continued. She had worked for the program office of a foundation in Chicago. "We gave out money based on grant proposals other organizations sent in, and we raised money as well," she explained. Then a friend recruited her as an assistant in the development office at Indiana University Northwest at Gary.

When they were ready to move to Botetourt she heard about the opening for a fundraiser at Opera Roanoke. Glowing recommendations got her the job, and she's been hard at work since spring.

Since her arrival, she has been "stunned," her word, that there are people, even some faculty at nearby colleges, "who have no idea we have an opera here." Even Roanoke Symphony fans don't seem to understand that their orchestra plays for each opera. So she sees her job partly as an educational one, too.

And she's always eager to explain how any full-time student can get a free ticket to any performance simply by asking. Or any group of ten can get a 10 percent discount on ticket prices.

Smyth also faces the mistaken idea that opera is a "hoity-toity high fallutin' thing people would never understand." But most people have heard opera, they just don't realize it. Bugs Bunny cartoon music, for instance. Many commercials. On and on.

Both Smyth and Short highly recommend Verdi's comedy "Falstaff," based on two Shakespeare plays. It plays tonight at Shaftman Hall at the Jefferson Center, with a repeat on Sunday afternoon.

After all, they have the best of everything right here. As Short puts it, "Now that I've learned how to pronounce it [Botetourt], I wouldn't want to live anywhere else for the rest of my life."