Piece Comment

Review of The Ring and I: The Passion, The Myth, The Mania


Attention-grabbing from the start, The Ring and I explores a little-understood musical aspect that almost unknowingly impacts American life across social and economical levels. From cartoons watched by impovished children to Met performances "graced" by the presence of debutantes, virtually all here have heard at least a segment of Wagnerian opera.

It is also honest in its presentation, including openly addressing Wagner's anti-Semitism.

The presentation is sufficiently broad-ranged to enrapt adult listeners (including professional musicians), yet is simple enough to warrant presenting to children as young as pre-teens. It achieves this by relating the music and story to modern music stories, especially the Ring Trilogy in the movies.

The gift of this presentation is that however stereotyped opera and especially Wagner's opera is in our minds, we are lifted beyond our prejudices to explore the possibilities his music has to enrich all our lives.