I am about halfway through Die Walküre. This was a very busy week, and I am only now coming up for air. For me, the two most powerful scenes so far in the Ring cycle are when Wotan takes the ring from Alberich in Scene 4 of Das Rheingold, and the argument between Wotan and Fricka in Act II, Scene 1 of Die Walküre. I should note a discovery I made while writing that sentence is that Das Rheingold is not divided into acts. I hadn't noticed that before. Wagner wrote it as a cont