Dear Nathaniel,

Thank you for your letter. I can well understand your enthusiasm with Wagner's
music. When I was 15, the Metropolitan Opera came to Philadelphia. Tickets were
sold out, but I managed to get in the act as a supernumerary, dressed up in a
uniform and carrying a flag onto the stage in the first act of Tannhäuser.
If you exclude the white suits of the medical internship and residency, it's
the only time I've ever worn a uniform, certainly the only occasion on which
I've ever carried a flag. As I remember it now, I'm most impressed by the 
elaborate efforts required for the visual illusions onstage, - and the chaos, 
turmoil, confusion behind the curtain required to create the appearance.

Parsifal, if I remember correctly, was the opera which precipitated Nietzsche's
rejection of Wagner. He found the religious ideology intolerable. Perhaps it
speaks badly for me that I don't take Wagner's "religion" or its expressions
seriously. I suspect you will agree that the music has meaning independent 
and separate from the propaganda in which it is packaged.

I will be interested in your comments - about Parsifal, as about (all) other
matters. If it suits your mood, and if you have time, please keep me informed
about your plans.

Jochen