After Die Walküre

This is changing the way I experience and think about opera. That sounds pretentious, but it's true. We saw a production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Zoroastre at the antique Drottningholm Palace Theatre the summer before last, and that did something similar - that was also an amazing experience, and very, very different from most operas I had seen before, but it's also the only baroque opera and the only opera-ballet I've seen to date, which explains much of the difference from the Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti and Mozart operas I had experienced previously. Wagner and Verdi were contemporaries, but the difference is enormous. I have the impression that Wagner is supposed to be more "difficult" than Verdi, Mozart et al.; I really don't understand why - if anything, I think that Wagner's "endless melody" makes them easier to digest.

I love it. I'm sold. We're thinking of joining the Swedish Wagner Society and lining up for future tickets to Bayreuth.