You can learn from "Notes Compared With Charles" why you'll want to pursue sitting in an opera house for four evenings to experience the Wagner Ring of four operas. If you already know the value of experiencing the Ring operas, you can buy "Notes Compared With Charles" for someone who will be a first-timer. There is no other live performance like Wagner's Ring cycle: no stage play, no other opera, no rock concert, no IMAX film, no tour through a theme park, no home entertainment center sensory flood. The Wagner Ring is a profoundly complex work on its face and can become even more interesting depending on who is interpreting what Wagner wrote. As long as individuals approach the Ring with their own senses, it can remain a mighty portrait of passionate characters, available for identification, empathy and awe, regardless of the production. Buy this companion book to go with the Ring stories that you'll find inside the opera program describing the saga in full.