<rant> Oh how I wish I could see the Salonen/ Viola/ Sellars/ Brewer Tristan und Isolde, but I just can't afford it right now. The lowest ticket price is $175, equivalent to almost a dozen evenings at the Met. I'm pissed that the organizers can't corral more corporate sponsors or Mercedes Basses to offset the large production cost. I'm hearing so many good things about it left and right, but I can't do more than imagine what it would be like to finally hear Christine Brewer's Isolde live, to participate in the Esa-Pekka worship engulfing much of the literati, see and be moved by Viola's moving art. So I say, f* you all, who'll come out of it declaring that they've been forever altered by the singular experience. </rant>