Radio Lab tackles The Ring
- Well what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?
- Bugs Bunny
Catching up on some of my podcasts, I listened to a really interesting Radio Lab/WNYC special about The Ring Cycle, a series of four epic Wagner operas. That there are four operas by Wagner collectively called "The Ring Cycle" was something I did not know, nor did I know of the near fanatic devotees, nor its influences on more current music and literature, including Tolkein's own tale of a Ring and Bugs Bunny. It features commentary from a diverse cast, including Howard Shore, composer of the Lord of the Rings film scores I love so much. It's definitely worth a listen.
3 comments:
I second that -- it was a great show. It really made me curious about the opera.
I've got two different comic adaptations of it -- one by P.Craig Russel (who did some of the art for Sandman, among many other things) and an earlier version by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane. Both are really cool, but as a silent medium, the comics never really got me excited about the music.
Arrgh -- should be two Ls in Russell.
Rob, I love that you corrected yourself. Andrew, thanks for the heads up on this show - I listened twice yesterday and really liked it. I posted about it, too. I wonder, though, if people who liked the Radio Lab show (a one hour commitment) would sit through the whole 20-hour Ring cycle. I have seen it. It's slow to unfold.
Post a Comment