Wagner is a trip I need to take soon. I've seen quite a few opera productions over the years, but the only Wagner I've tackled is 'Die Meistersinger.' Perhaps next January!
This is a wonderful January activity (I might just try it). While I haven't done a concentrated immersion of one work such as you did, I really do enjoy lengthy box sets. I'm actually mid-way through Mosaic records "Classic Jazz at the Philharmonic Jam Sessions,1950-1957," the ten-CD set that Mosaic issued last year. Just great music!
Cool project, Marshall! The only equivalent I can think of is when I was immersing myself in Wagner back in the 90s. Several of the operas are 3-4 hours long and then there's the Ring cycle, which is about 12 hours all told. Repetition was really the method, sometimes even playing the first act (or first CD, anyway) a few times before moving on. It wasn't a chore at all as I loved the music so much, but it was a challenge to try to grasp the full measure of an opera. Now I want to take a month off of everything else and just listen to Wagner, but that would drive everyone around me crazy...including myself, thinking of all the new music I was missing!
Wagner is a trip I need to take soon. I've seen quite a few opera productions over the years, but the only Wagner I've tackled is 'Die Meistersinger.' Perhaps next January!
This is a wonderful January activity (I might just try it). While I haven't done a concentrated immersion of one work such as you did, I really do enjoy lengthy box sets. I'm actually mid-way through Mosaic records "Classic Jazz at the Philharmonic Jam Sessions,1950-1957," the ten-CD set that Mosaic issued last year. Just great music!
Cool project, Marshall! The only equivalent I can think of is when I was immersing myself in Wagner back in the 90s. Several of the operas are 3-4 hours long and then there's the Ring cycle, which is about 12 hours all told. Repetition was really the method, sometimes even playing the first act (or first CD, anyway) a few times before moving on. It wasn't a chore at all as I loved the music so much, but it was a challenge to try to grasp the full measure of an opera. Now I want to take a month off of everything else and just listen to Wagner, but that would drive everyone around me crazy...including myself, thinking of all the new music I was missing!