Epic Opera

i listened to a podcast on Wagner’s Ring Cycle for a homework assignment. the Ring Cycle is a cycle of 4 operas that add up to around 15 hours of drama & music. performances usually take 4 days, one opera per day. i highly recommend the podcast….it’s very well made, and geared toward the average listener, not music or drama experts.

a few interesting facts & observations from the podcast:

- Wagner worked on this for 26 years, writing both the libretto and the music.

- the work changed the landscape of music history, opera, theatre and philosophies of art.

- film scoring is a direct descendent of his compositional style (see leitmotif)

- Tolkien borrowed the idea of the Ring of Might from the Ring Cycle