At any time, Washington, DC would be an apposite place in which to stage Wagner's vast cautionary saga about the devastating effects of greed and lust for power on the human and natural world, but it is excruciatingly so at this moment. On Pennsylvania Avenue, roughly halfway between the White House and the Capitol, is a vast sign which reads COMING 2016: TRUMP. It is, however, not an election poster but a notice that the Donald has leased the semi-derelict nine-storey Old Post Office Pavilion, Washington's second tallest building, and has promised to spend $200 million to turn it into a luxury hotel. In a Trump presidency, if a rainbow bridge were to stretch from the White House to the Trump International Hotel, it would be difficult for the gods to decide at which end was Valhalla.