The real obscenities

Abstract

As the old joke goes, I always thought that cunnilingus was an Irish airline until I discovered the Royal Opera House. Having just spent 20 odd glorious hours sitting through Wagner's Ring Cycle at Covent Garden, I have read as many reviews of this disputed production. What puzzles me is that while these get all excited about the Oxfam shop costumes and cardboard box sets, all have studiously ignored the three separate instances of oral sex which Alberich bestows on a Rhine maiden during Das Rheingold. It occurs to me that the director escaped controversy because the tight knit opera community closed ranks to prevent the tabloids mounting a salivating and rabid attack with …