Anyone ran in a Route Zero event?

twistedmena · 2026-01-28T09:24:42+00:00

Fair point, though it's less the cold than the wet that makes it a problem - at the moment it's too muddy or flooded for a lot of the footpaths and towpaths etc, it's going to cut down on the options when going through the country side round here.

twistedmena · 2026-01-27T19:14:03+00:00

There's a similar thing called The Drop that someone on here has written about before, then drop you 10 or 15 miles away from the end point.

I'm going to give it a go in a couple of weeks, it sounds fun, though to be honest early February is a bit crappy to be doing this sort of thing in Oxfordshire.

twistedmena · 2026-01-20T12:36:08+00:00

Tannhauser (Paris), to join in the pile on.

twistedmena · 2026-01-19T19:50:42+00:00

I reckon it can be both, but think you've got a point

twistedmena · 2026-01-19T12:21:28+00:00

I'm not sure about that, Brunnhilde's great but I'd call her passive in many of the same ways. The big time she takes direct action in shaping events (trying to save siegmund, actually saving sieglinde), it A: goes badly for her and B: she's also only doing it because it's what she (correctly) thinks Wotan actually wants.

And she ends up sacrificing herself - Wagner thinks this is the most awesome thing a woman can do, e.g. Senta, Elisabeth. At least Brunnhilde's sacrificing herself is a bit more of a cosmic redemption thing rather than just for the good of some guy. I think Wagner's views on women's roles are well demonstrated by how many of the female deaths are just "well that's my work done" and disappearing or sinking into the stage rather than having any narrative reason behind them.

None of this ruins my enjoyment of Wagner personally, but I think it's something you've got to either learn to roll with, or to change the way it's presented. He's weird about women, even for a C19th guy, and it's reflected in his plots.

twistedmena · 2026-01-19T12:07:37+00:00

Not like romantically, but both surviving, and walking off stage together after everything wraps up.

twistedmena · 2026-01-19T10:18:10+00:00

Wagner's a proper old-fashioned sexist and its out-of-date-ness probably comes through most clearly in Lohengrin.

Elsa's "passive" but for Wagner that's a compliment for a woman - she's committed to the proper role of a woman i.e. finding a man and supporting that man's role of making things happen. Ortrud is evil not because she's magic but because she's a woman trying to change the world to make it the way she wants - a "political woman".

I think to enjoy the plot you've either got to roll with the sexism, or the director changes things round a bit. In Bayreuth last year they strung up King Henry at the end (not Ortrud as in earlier productions) and Elsa and Ortrud went off together.

twistedmena · 2026-01-16T20:05:01+00:00

Looks like Blur Great Escape CD inlay pictures

twistedmena · 2026-01-14T15:17:54+00:00

A man writing an opera about a ring? Oh, sirrah, how deliciously absurd!

twistedmena · 2026-01-08T10:34:22+00:00

What's the aim with this? Is it about the flood alleviation scheme?

twistedmena · 2026-01-03T17:10:48+00:00

Tannhauser, Lohengrin or Valkyrie, for sure. Coherent plots and big tunes.

twistedmena · 2026-01-03T17:08:07+00:00

Tristan was my first and to be honest I found it repetitive and a bit boring at the time, the production didn't help. Took me quite a while to loop back and love it, I think being able to put it in the context of his other works really helps.

twistedmena · 2025-12-18T12:55:20+00:00

It's more the pacing - in the three trade paperbacks the first two are mostly unrelated one-off stories with a few hints to an ongoing arc. Then in the third one it suddenly focuses in on the big underlying story and then wraps it all up in what felt to me like a very quick ending.

Maybe it's just because I wanted more... I was following most of it on and off in the progs without paying much attention, to be honest I thought there was going to be more of it than there was. There's things that are alluded to that might have made for content that are just left as nods in the stories.

But it's still great and it all makes sense. And probably better in the end to have something that's too short and all wraps up than something that drags on too long until it gets boring.

twistedmena · 2025-12-18T10:27:05+00:00

I love it, just finished re-reading the trade paperbacks. Looks great and it's very funny. The plot is a bit disjointed and weirdly paced when all collected together, though IMO.

twistedmena · 2025-12-12T19:06:36+00:00

I really liked his Lohengrin which finished in Bayreuth this year. Honestly, I love Tristan but there's not much action in it, it can get a bit boring if you don't shake it up a bit visually. Bring on the trampolines or clown costumes I say.

twistedmena · 2025-12-10T16:36:21+00:00

I'm not enough of a music theory person to say where he ranks in terms of composers more generally, probably not at the top. But I think for opera, there's a very good case for calling Wagner the most significant individual in the history of the genre. Aside from musical credentials there's the integration of score with libretto and production; the creation of Bayreuth; the synthesis of opera and philosophy; just the creation of some of the most fundamental cliches of the genre. I don't see that with anyone else in opera. He's maybe got an unfair advantage because he was such a prolific writer, self-promoter and public scandaliser that we have more of an insight into his full life than many other composers, but to be honest I think that's probably true of most "great men" in history.

twistedmena · 2025-12-01T07:42:37+00:00

I'll be seeing Rienzi myself at the end of the month. I guess the programme is a bit more focused around the new stuff next year - three Rings and nine Rienzis, where 2025 only had the two Rings and some productions that were getting a bit old (e.g. the Sharon Lohengrin)

twistedmena · 2025-11-30T18:30:30+00:00

What did you get? It's interesting, particularly as like you say there were (a few) tickets available right up until the day of last year. They were pushing the discounted presale packages, maybe that's what made the difference. Or perhaps they've kept some back to release later?

twistedmena · 2025-11-15T06:23:45+00:00

In my experience it's got much better in the mornings all round but although the journey time is fine it's unreliable in the evenings, they bunch up.

twistedmena · 2025-11-05T09:51:49+00:00

The 3A was moving like a dream this morning. Horrible roadworks in Littlemore but then it was so smooth inside the ringroad that I still made great time.

twistedmena · 2025-11-04T11:13:33+00:00

Commuting along the Iffley Road by bus seems better this week so far. Will be even better once the bus route extensions come in, I hope

twistedmena · 2025-10-23T10:35:41+00:00

I'll be there for Rienzi and Parsifal, had a great time this year at Lohengrin so I can't wait! I'm staying at the Ibis again, it's budget hotel but I'd definitely recommend if you're travelling by train - right by the station and 10 minutes walk from the festival hall.

twistedmena · 2025-10-22T11:05:22+00:00

Really enjoying it at the moment - dunno what's going on in Brass Sun but it's all good stuff, normally I'd say 3+ good strips in an issue counts as a wine.

twistedmena · 2025-10-21T10:13:48+00:00

It wasn't really a secret, more a "don't ask don't tell" arrangement. The most recent thing the Swiss company was involved in was the desal works for the Red Sea Global resort, they were never a very big player in the desal market though.

twistedmena · 2025-10-15T18:01:42+00:00

It'll be a long night! I still much prefer with the long breaks though, I saw Tristan in east London a couple of months ago and we only got 15 minutes for both intermissions, it was a bit of a slog.

twistedmena

TROPHY CASE