You obviously went out looking for hellish lighting. And found it. I'm just now playing with the DNG and I gotta say, the sharpness and rendering is spectacular. I'm just a dedicated amateur (since age seven), but have always had a sweet spot for 35mm RFs. I learned on my dad's Minolta Autocord, but my first real camera was a Ricoh 500G--Loaded with Kodachrome, of course!
As for the retouching, thanks. I'm guided, oddly enough, not by Adams or Picker, or Plowden or any of the other photo-craftsmen I admire, but a guy named Steve Hoffman. He's an audio mastering engineer who has a simple goal in his work: Providing what he calls "The Breath of Life." Simple goal. Very tough to achieve.
He also loves him some Leicas.