Ring Cycle IV

The saga continues. Seeing Götterdamrüng, live, in the Seattle Opera House, as the conclusion to the the Ring Cycle, is an amazing event. It was supposed to be the longest yet is seemed amazingly short, and it sparked much family discussion and friendly debate. Take it form the top, I’ve been actively listening to the music for several years now, in preparation. I know the conclusion is supposed to be a sad affair, the end of the world as the characters know it, but the effect of the music suggests that there is hope. Sure, the hero dies, sure his wife, a fallen deity, she jumps in his funeral pyre, too. However, there’s a musical sense that something good is going to happen. One noted scholar, sitting a few seats away, chuckled when I suggested, “And they live happily ever after.”