Manolo says, here is the Manolo’s latest column from the Express of the Washington Post.

Dear Manolo,

I will be attending the entire Wagner Ring Cycle in April at the Lincoln Center. Since we had to almost refinance our home in order to afford tickets that do not require high altitude acclimatization, I cannot afford new shoes for each performance. So I am looking for one pair of Wagner-worthy shoes. The other three pairs of shoes needed I will have to fashion from scraps of vintage breast-plates and horn.

Lenora

Manolo says, how to explain the Cycle of the Wagnerian Ring to the person who has never attended the entire thing in the single marathon week, except to note that it is at once horrifically enthralling and terribly corny.

How is it possible, the Manolo asks, that the Richard Wagner converted such ridiculous and bombastic source material – the Norse Gods are having the bad hair millennium – into the work of supreme affect?

It is the music! What else?

This music of Wagner, so stirring, so brilliant, so memorable, works the transformational magic on what is essentially the elevated flapdoodle, and thus the tangled soap opera story of the comic-book super hero is converted into the purest gold.

Plus, how can one resist the over-the-top spectacle of the handsome men being assailed by stout women in armor? It is like the candy; very chewy, very dense candy

Speaking of the candy, here is the Licorice Too from the Kate Spade, glittery perfection for the opera.