Wagner's music: better than sex?

My discovery of the work of Richard Wagner when I was a teenager was a revelation that was as momentous as losing my virginity. My first sexual encounter was with a girl who I will call Brünnhilde, and after that event my view of the female sex was transformed for good. In a similar way, after hearing Wagner for the first time my whole outlook on music changed just as dramatically. My music lessons at school were fairly traditional. This, I hasten to add, was thirty years ago and pretty much al [...]