THANKS!  Very thrilled to have such a lot of encouragement.  Is blogging meant to be this scary?  Meant to say special thanks to T for getting me to do it.  Thanks Topsy.  Now I'm off to London for weekend.

The Ring

Countdown to The Ring - Wagner here I come!  
In five days' time I'll be at Rheingold at the Birmingham Hippodrome and I am VERY excited.  A bit weak at the knees at the thought of my first ever Ring (i.e. the whole thing, on a stage) so I'm trying to listen to it all, study the scores (piano arrangements), play it all on the piano and read dozens of books on the subject including the translation of all the words - before Wednesday.  Wish me luck.  Anyway if I don't like the look of it (you never know - I didn't really like Parsifal) I'll just shut my eyes and listen to the music.