and for those innocent bystanders who are wondering what the hell this thread is about.
"The Ring" is a cycle of operas by Richard Wagner. It's pretty good stuff once you get used to the talkative style of singing and you can follow the story line.
One of the most obvious underlying arcs is how the gods, potent though they are, bring about their downfall by being idiots; basically having "flaws and shortcomings whom one can love and hate", whereas in the human storyline, they do nothing particularly wrong, being pious and heroic on every occasion, but being propelled by destiny, still have no other option left but to work towards their doom. In the end, everyone dies. Pretty classic stuff, but also diametrically opposed to what our expert claimed. And when attended to this error, got all defensive deferring authority to people (right down to a resurrected Wagner) who agreed with him (or more likely, whose opinion he copied so as to appear learned on the subject), and walls of text concerning trivia which had nothing to do with his initial mistake.
So there.
As for Verdi, it's a very different style of opera, but don't be put off. Just make sure to get a bi-lingual booklet (or libretto, as we Wagnerians call it) and follow along with the story. Once you start picking out the "Leitmotive", which are little melodies that are tied to certain people, object, or events, and how these are woven into the score, chances are you'll be delighted. In spite of its reputation, it's humourous, violent, and even touching at times. If you're not sure, just get the first part "Rheingold". It's short, and has a comical angry dwarf in it, especially if you realize at the end, that the whole goddam mess could have been avoided if those Rheinbitches would have shown our poor dwarf some tlc.