It's beginning to look a lot like Festspiele

Over at Wellsung, a conversation concerning the Kirov Ring (I don't care how Mariinsky they want to be, they'll always be the Kirov to me) - among other things. We'll concentrate on the Wagner content.

You know it's Wagner season when people start anxiously awaiting the broadcasts from the Green Hill (guilty as charged, here, too). I don't know why, but Wagner season puts a special spring in folks' step. Like the spring to combat whenever someone says, "I thought Flagstad overrated" or "Furtwängler wasn't that good." You'd better have a bottle at the ready if you want to discuss stagings or conducting styles, too, because "[them] fighting words" varies from setting to setting.

In any event, I might review some of the broadcasts, though I bet others do better jobs. Despite that Parsifal, I still have a hard time getting too worked up about Christian Thielemann. I might catch Adam Fischer's Parsifal, though.