I deeply, sincerely love and adore many genres of classical music - I spend, by far, more time listening to it than I spend on any other leisure activity.

But I am deeply, profoundly allergic to most "grand opera". And you don't get grander or more operatic than Wagner's Ring Cycle.

But I'll give it a try (again) ..... you never know, my tastes do evolve, quite substantially, I may love it this time .....

<< 5 minute pause >>

Well, I really quite enjoyed the 4 minute purely orchestral Vorspiel.
Then 2 females came on and started caterwauling at each other. 

Nope, sorry, still allergic.

Yes, just like that. Although the cats are marginally more enjoyable to listen to.

Other folks love Wagner opera. And that's fine.

Live and let live, that's what I say.

Liking Mahler is fine, as well. That's an enthusiasm that I share.
Well, most Mahler.  We differ on the 8th.  But it's fine for you to like that, too, even if it does show appalling taste.

Whilst my mum would give this 11/10 if possible as a devoted Wagner fan,
she knows my feelings about Wagner (and opera in general!) very well.

She also keeps telling me how much she thinks I would enjoy the music without the singing LOL ...
It's a bit of banter between us that never seems to end.

I actually appeared in an opera once as a boy but thankfully that was my first and only ...
The best I have done since is to sit through a Monteverdi opera at the Barbican which was tolerable; my mum had been bending my ear about it for so long I capitulated.

Jerry summed up my attitude to opera very well but hey, this is the album choice so one needs to take the plunge and have a go;
it does give an opportunity to test the current status of aversion. Will report back!

It's nothing to do with story (which I admit I am not interested in, and it has the effect of grossly distorting the form of the music turning it into a series of disjointed episodes) it's to do with caterwauling sopranos and bellowing bellicose basses, not to mention the interminable rambling soliloquies needed to make sense of the plot.

Just listen to the awful racket those two females make after the Vorspiel that starts DR. 

Listening to that cacophony simply isn't my idea of having a good time. For me, opera may be best as a "highlights disc", with the big arias and choruses, and orchestral set-pieces heard in isolation without the plot-related linkages (which can be very extensive). Like a pop or rock album; often a sequence of largely unrelated tracks, perhaps unified by a common thread of narrative or musical leitmotifs.

I make a few exceptions - Handel's Xerxes, Mozart's Magic Flute (well, somewhat), Philip Glass's Akhnaten and most Gilbert & Sullivan.

On consideration, I think my problem with opera is that it is (melo)drama set to music.  I'm really not interested in that, I much prefer my music to be unsullied by arbitrary twists and turns of plot, and my musical eternal verities to be expressed at one remove.

But hey, if you like it, knock yourself out and fillyerboots!

Oh well, I've done my best. I'll get me coat. 

Ok, the opening build-up Vorspiel is very nice, then the singing begins. Then I liked the opening to Wotan! but the singing started again. It's not quite as irritating as a Mozart opera, but it just goes on and on and on. Which is strange when I love choral music or songs like those of Schubert, Mahler and Strauss.

I really like Wagner's orchestration so I will commit to listening to more of his music. Did he write much beyond opera?

5/10.

Hah - coincidentally, I was just playing that through the Pi and quite enjoying it