Major props to 3CM, who brought this to my attention some months ago.
Allow me to present to you Anna Russell:
There's nothing to analyze here: her presentation of Wagner's Ring Cycle is complete in and of itself.
And hysterical.
You don't even have to know the Ring Cycle to get the jokes.
Frankly, my familiarity with the Ring Cycle -- before 3CM turned me on to Anna Russell's version -- was the Bugs Bunny "What's Opera, Doc?" episode by the legendary Chuck Jones. If I could find it at YT right now, it would be embedded here. AFAICT, though, the clip showing the whole version has been scrubbed from the site. (If you can find it, please please embed or link in comments!)
Some further info about Anna Russell:
Russell's early career included a few engagements in opera (including a disastrous appearance as a substitute Santuzza in a British touring production of Cavalleria rusticana, where she clumsily tripped on a set piece and pulled it down – an event later used in her comedy) – as well as appearances as a folk singer on BBC radio in 1931. Russell's mother was Canadian, and the family returned in 1939 to Toronto, after her father's death, where she began to appear on local radio stations as an entertainer.
snip
Russell became known for her deadpan humour, including her disbelieving emphasis of the absurd in well accepted stories and her mockery of pretension. For example, in her humorous analysis of Wagner's Ring cycle, she began by noting that the first scene takes place in the River Rhine: "In it!!"
snip
Besides her Ring and Gilbert and Sullivan parodies, Russell was famous for other routines, including "Wind Instruments I Have Known", and parodies of lieder ("Schlumpf"), French art song ("Je ne veux pas faire l'amour" and "Je n'ai pas la plume de ma tante"), English folksongs ("I Wish I Were a Dicky-Bird" and "Oh How I Love the Spring"), and English music-hall songs ("I'm Only A Faded Rose"); even stretching to quasi-jazz ("I Gave You My Heart").
snip
She received the Canadian Women's Press Club Award in 1956 as the best Canadian comedy writer of the year. Giving advice on how to be a successful singer, she quipped that although a glorious voice was important, "it helps to be an independently wealthy, politically motivated, back-stabbing bitch."
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
10:18 PM PT: Many thanks to Klompendanser, who found the full "What's Opera, Doc?" version of the Ring Cycle:
10:22 PM PT: Oh, crap, the embed code didn't work for me. Well, it's embedded here in danser's comment:
http://www.dailykos.com/...