Yay, my new Anna Russell CD just arrived!
Anna Russell is (well, mostly was, since she was born in 1911) a comic musicologist famous for her ability to teach and delight.
link to a biography, with emphasis on her summary of Wagner
Here's why I love to love her: Unlike many supposedly-funny comediennes, Anna Russell had no need to play the feminist card. She was simply a performer of substance and quality, and that spoke for itself. She was able to find and communicate humour lightly, to poke fun without bashing people, and to be humble without being self-effacing -- qualities which are always-already fading in the world. She had a laudable ability to manipulate her own voice and a capacious sensitivity to ironies already inherent in musicology -- there are a lot of them, and gentle irony is a most effective teacher. Anna Russell was just cool.
(But hilarodos might not agree. I can't really claim much expertise on these things.)