The performance of the Rheingold will live long in my memory, as the extreme realisation of weird beauty steeped in atmosphere such as may be in some other planet, flushed with sunset or moonrise. This music is like a land of dreams, into which the spirit breaks at times, and, hurrying back a million of years, discovers, on the surface of far-off seas, or dim caverns, the light that has long since gone out for ever. The elemental prelude of deep and slumbrous sound wafts us away from all account of time and space of the present. The vast hall, full of silent human beings, has been touched by the magician's wand. All grows dark, and the dim grey-green depths of the Rhine alone become visible. We strain our eyes into the dimness, and are aware of the deep moving of the Rhine water. The three Rhine daughters grow visible, swimming midwater, swimming and singing, guardians of the Rheingold. What unearthly, unhuman, magical, snatches of sweetest song! There is at last realized the creature of legend, the Undine at once more and less than human.