Jad is one of the best young producers in public radio and this program demonstrates his talent handily.

Most attempts by producers to cover the arts have all the excitement of watching water boil. Those pieces often contain too much polite reverence to offer anything unique or interesting; others come off as didactic or exclusive. In this piece, the producer takes one of classical music's warhorses back to the egg. The results are fresh, engaging, insightful, funny, and fantastic radio. The piece makes one of the most well known works of opera seem new and exciting--which is an off-the-scale accomplishment.

While some classical blue bloods will grimace at the less-than-pious treatment of Wagner's masterwork, others will appreciate its unusual (yet credible) take on a (heretofore) stale and tired subject.

This is one of those pieces that you have to ask why a station (news or classical) wouldn't air this, rather than why it would.

WNYC also deserves accolades for not only supporting this great piece of work, but for providing two (not one, but two!!) promos for stations to get the word out to listeners about this fantastic program.