An excited crowd of Wagner fans and music industry professionals were in attendance at Sydney’s Government House for the official launch of the latest release on the Australian Decca Eloquence label.

Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Administrator of the Commonwealth of Australia, spoke eloquently, and with considerable passion, about the project to record a series of explorations of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle by respected Australian writer, lecturer, and former diplomat Peter Bassett. The talks, one on each of the operas that make up the epic Der Ring Des Nibelungen, have been recorded for posterity on a four CD box set beautifully packaged with dedicated artwork specially commission by Universal Music Australia.

“Peter’s contribution to enlightenment – the German cultural enlightenment, the Australian enlightenment – is a truly scholarly analysis and deep appreciation of Wagnerian opera, particularly of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelungen”, said Marie Bashir, “For he has provided a splendid awareness of the rich psychological insights, which these works convey, and which now will be shared with an audience world wide.”

Bassett, who lives in Queensland, is a worldwide authority on Wagner and his operas and has been closely associated with both stagings of the Ring in Adelaide in...