If ya gotta explain how great it is, how great is it?

The Metropolitan Opera's new production of the Ring Cycle boasts a stage of rotating planks and computer-controlled video projections.  The "encore" presentation of Das Rheingold broadcast to movie theaters began with a "making of" documentary to educate us as to the wonders of this contraption.

Next came the bladder-bursting, intermission-free, 3-hour performance. The singing and acting were magnificent (as you would expect from the Met), but the set and effects showed the pre-performance hype to be just that.

(If you have any interest in opera, the Met's "Live in HD" showings are a bargain.)