Other than every kid's pup-culture exposure to Wagner ("Kill the Wabbit!" and so on), I was culturally less-than-literate.
For some reason I was intrigued enough by these listings to not only watch, but dub the airings to VHS for repeat watching ...
This staging was sort of a revelation. The Rhinemaidens hanging about big water pipes? Folks casting about with big voices dressed like refugees from "Fractured Fairy Tales"? I'm in!
To my mind, the concepts treated in these operas -- what one is willing to foreswear to achieve unnatural power over others -- ran hand-in-glove with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books, and other books like F Paul Wilson's The Keep.
The realization that someone would deliberately abjure human connection, in exchange for inconsiderate sway over others, is so disturbing and creepy that it still makes my head hang in shame at this property of fallen humanity.
Please don't set aside your chance for human connection!
See you on Thursday for something probably a lot more lighthearted.
