The Fredösphere

Is this picture...
A. The lineup of speakers for the United Nations Celebrate Diversity Conference?
B. The spokesmodels for the Fredösphere Foundation For World Peace? or
C. Black! It's the new, uh, black! or
D. A production of Wagner opera staged in rural England?

If you answered A, B or C, you would be correct in spirit only. For more on this story, go here and here. (Really, you should read all about it.) Dare I say? I approve.

I honestly can't imagine sitting through the entire Ring in its original form. For my favorite packaging of the music, see this. The only Wagner opera I would pay money to see staged (or better, filmed) is The Dutchman which was maybe the second classical LP I ever bought, with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. After that one, the old boy's head began to swell even as his self-editing abilities shrank. Don't get me wrong -- tons of great music came after. Tons. But each subsequent opera sounds to me like two hours of music stuffed into five. Sad really. But Hanslitt said it all first, and best. (And Mark Twain said it funniest.)