“Sagas are back – if they ever went away. The National Theatre has a sell-out on its hands with an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials; Peter Jackson’s film trilogy of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has won record audiences and Oscars; and on Friday night at London’s Coliseum, there wasn’t an empty seat for English National Opera’s performance of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold.

We are rediscovering the compelling attraction of those alternative, mythical universes peopled by demons, pagan forces of awesome power, warrior armies of mutant human beings, spells and curses against which the heroes battle.

The English tradition, exemplified by Tolkien and Pullman, is one where, on the whole, we know good will finally triumph over evil and whatever the tribulations, the identifiable hero or heroine will win in the end. This is the reason video-game software writers find such literature a treasure trove.

But Wagner doesn’t do good and evil quite so easily; he both revolts and attracts simultaneously, although even his sternest critic has to acknowledge that he is the composer of some of the most transcendent and original music ever written. Yes, he is quarrying the same mine of myth as Tolkien and Pullman; Das Rheingold ‘s characters could have come straight from Northern Lights or the Two Towers. But there are no forces of unambiguous good or bad. Every character is compromised by some combination of lust, quest for power and uncertainty about its moral compass…” —Guardian.UK