Siegfried and Brünnhilde.
I spent a long time trying to figure out what scene should be in the upper portion of the piece. I went with a moment from the Wagner re-telling of Siegfried and Brünnhilde when Siegfried, a youth who does not know fear, awakens Brünnhilde who was put to sleep in a ring of fire by Odin.
The simple idea behind the piece is that, to me, Opera is at once silly and serious. Silly in its high seriousness. And yet the costumes and music and yes, even the thirty minute singing death scenes conspire together somehow to touch something incredibly beautiful.
If anybody ever wonders why...love opera, wonder no more.