Now that dealing with garageband is turning out to be a sight more difficult than it seemed when I started putting the rain sounds together, I’ve turned my attention to others’ sounds again. Was discussing Mahler with a friend and then, of all people: Wagner! Of course, of course, Wagner was an anti-semite, but if that’s the criterion half of all European art can be relegated to the trash heap of history. I know no Wagner can be performed in Israel (although it was Barenboim, I think, who said he would, but then had to withdraw that statement in the face of massive popular protest). Once, I was in London for work and D. came along, because there was a hotelroom and a spare ticket anyway. (flying business class AMS to Heathrow is simply ridiculous) It was very hot, and one day, when I came back to the hotel from my assignment, we had no choice but to stay in the room with the Airco full on and the curtains drawn. And we watched the BBC screening of the Ring Cycle. I think Bryn Terfel was in it. I was incredibly moved by it, once I figured out why all those leitmotive are there: to get you emotionally involved with the characters. I like how Wagner operas get charged with all kinds of modern references in how they are staged, so that they become commentaries on present day societal and political issues. And the orchestration is marvelous, truly a work of genius. Twilight of the Gods