Musical marathon: A ten-minute guide to the ring cycle

As BBC Radio 3 prepares to broadcast all four operas in one day, Louise Jury tells you everything you wanted to know but were too scared to ask about classical music’s most daunting work
By Mary Dejevsky [The Independent, 1 March 2006]
Every once in a while, the BBC decides to do something so stylish and so daring that you are reminded all over again why the national broadcaster remains the envy of the world. Broadcasting the complete works of Bach before Christmas was one such project. Radio 3’s latest present to its listeners is to broadcast the whole of Wagner’s Ring cycle on Easter Monday – 15 hours from overture to finale.