Is it possible to have a music drama for an opera that’s not romantically themed?  Can a modern and more realistic opera combine the same art that Wagner did and have it be a Gesamtkunstwerk?  On a completely irrelevant side note, I think it’s really cool that Lord of the Rings is pretty much based on The Nibelung’s Ring.  I view Tolkien as the father of modern fantasy, and therefore original, and it was weird to read that he too copied his source material from others.