According to Arthur C. Clarke, 2001's Star Child was totally bored by Wagner

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With the recent news that 3001, the late Arthur C. Clarke's 1997 final sequel to his 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, is being filmed as a miniseries for Syfy, I'm re-reading all three of Clarke's follow-up novels: 2010 (1982), 2061 (1987), and 3001. This weekend, as I read 2010, I was surprised to discover the revelation that the Star Child wasn't that into Wagner.

In a passage of the novel, the Star Child — the reborn, pure-energy manifestation of astronaut David Bowman — returns to Earth both to revisit the scenes of Bowman's youth (he brushes his mother's hair, and stops by the scene of a fatal childhood accident involving Bowman's brother) and to run some reconnaissance for the alien beings who created the mysterious monoliths and transformed Bowman.

Clarke describes the Star Child's Earthly itinerary thus: "The pyramids, the Grand Canyon, the moon-washed snows of Everest — those were choices of his own. So were some art galleries and concert halls; though he would certainly, on his own initiative, never have endured the whole of the Ring."

Photo of Deborah Voigt as Brunnhilde by Marty Sohl, courtesy Metropolitan Opera