The weather was glorious and I had tickets to the Ring cycle, Wagner’s masterpiece of musical theatre, four long operas to be seen over six days, about 15 hours of music in all.

Wagner had built his own theatre on the outskirts of the town in the mid nineteenth century and it is still there, playing his – and only his – music for nearly 150 years. His Festspielhaus is on a hill, protected from urban reality by rising lawns; private vehicles are prohibited. As the time for the first of the four operas approached, the ticket-holders, me among them, walked up the slope in small groups. We wore our Sunday best, some flamboyantly so, others more modestly, the older assisted by the younger. There was not much talk: all eyes were on the theatre rising up ahead, and the looming 6 p.m. start. This was like heading to Mass in rural Ireland in the 1960s minus the cars and kids. Wagner is our faith and Der Ring des Nibelungen his great secular statement.

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