By Judith H. Dobrzynski [Wall Street Journal, 7 May 2009]

At 9:45 a.m. one recent Tuesday, the huge center stage of the Metropolitan Opera is a construction site. Carpenters, scenic artists, electricians and other back-of-house workers are moving around in somewhat organized chaos, putting together the set for Act III, Scene I of Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung.” The forest clearing, where the action takes place, is sitting, half-assembled, on a 60-foot-wide wagon, stage-left, not quite ready to be wheeled to center stage by electric motors. It’s messy; it’s noisy.