ually comes out on top in popularity terms, yet listening to it this time round I don't recall feeling especially moved by it. Then again, maybe it's a matter of what version you get. I seem to remember liking Bruno Walter's 1935 Walkre Act I when I heard it. At present, therefore, I don't dislike Wagner but I'm not exactly a fan either. There's still obstacles in the way of my greater enjoyment of Wagner's work. Still, despite the difficulty, I'm willing to make an effort to understand him better. Having finished with the Ring, I'll now give Tristan and Parsifal another go, and make an attempt on Die Meistersinger. And perhaps one day I will indeed learn to love the Tristan prelude, as Matthew has ordered me to do. Meanwhile, Karlheinz Stockhausen is pressing ahead with his Licht series of seven operas, due for completion in 2002, whereupon even the Ring will be dwarfed in time scalethe four parts currently available already fill more CDs than any Ring cycle I know, and there are still three more parts to be written and/or recorded. Wonder if anyone will ever hold Stockhausen responsible for a war? I'm sure Wagner would never have expected that honour either ...
