Le Corbusier is a Disconsolate Bull Terrier

Wagner's Ring Cycle is a version of Lord of the Rings... but not, too.

How Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is Similar to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

• Both have four parts
• The Ring Cycle: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung
• Lord of the Rings: The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King
• Each part is ridiculously long
• The Ring Cycle: 2 - 5 hours each
• The Lord of the Rings: ~4 hours each
• There's a ring involved
• There's a dragon, too

How Götterdämmerung is better than LOTR 

• There's a ton of betrayal
• There are Rhinemaidens who repeatedly climb onto rocks and repeatedly slide down
• It's a live performance

How LOTR is better than Götterdämmerung

• Orlando Bloom
• Cinematic excellence
• Ents (trees that walk and talk? I think that's pretty awesome)
• The greatest battle scenes
• Legolas

All in all, in comparison, LOTR is pretty damn great but if I had another opportunity to visit the opera, I'd take it and run. The story was a bit slow, but I did enjoy it despite the butt cramps and slight tardiness (I was late, not the show). The show is also sung in German but at the Met opera house, there are screens on the back of the chairs for subtitles. The fantastic thing about these screens is that they're designed so that you can't see what's on your neighbor's screen and vice versa. I thought that was pretty damn cool. Next time, I'm going to fight for box seats because there are too many damn heads to look over in the orchestra.

You can watch a trailer for Götterdämmerung here.

To close, please admire Le Corbusier and his barking lookalike.

Dogs who Look Like Starchitects