Houston Grand Opera goes for the gold with the "Ring" cycle

Long before "The Lord of the Rings," there was "The Ring of the Nibelung."

Composer Richard Wagner shaped Norse and Germanic legends into an epic four-opera tale of gods, magic, power lust and transcendent love. Its heroes and heroines spawned the caricature of opera singers in breastplates, blonde braids and horned helmets.

The "Ring" presents so many musical, theatrical and financial challenges that only a handful of U.S. opera companies have done it. Houston Grand Opera will join them Friday when it presents the first part, "Das Rheingold," or "The Gold of the Rhine."

"Das Rheingold" is drawing visitors from the other 49 states and more than 20 countries for its five performances. A hit would burnish the company's and city's reputations throughout the opera world.

The undertaking is so huge that HGO is spreading the four operas over four years, concluding in 2017, at a price tag of $16 million.

"It's just such a grand adventure - grand in every sense of the word," artistic director Patrick Summers said. "It's emotionally thrilling. It's humorous. Visually, it's absolutely dazzling."

The story begins when a gnome steals gold from the Rhine river that he makes into a ring wielding limitless power. "The Twilight of the Gods," the last opera, ends with the rivals defeated, the world burned to ashes, and the gold returned to its underwater home.

The four dramas of the "Ring" total about 16 hours of music. The orchestra the work demands is among the biggest in opera, and the singers have to match its impact. With settings that range from the waters of the Rhine to mountain peaks to forests to caverns, the "Ring" has challenged directors, designers and stage crews ever since its premiere in 1876.

"This is the most ambitious project this company has ever engaged in," Summers said.

Invoking 'Star Wars'

HGO's staging of the "Ring," created by the Spanish theater company La Fura dels Baus, won't be traditional. Director Carlus Padrissa, who leads that company, invokes "Star Wars" instead.

Video projections will set the scene as the world takes shape out of mists and the underworld appears. When Wagner calls for gods to fly, Padrissa said, that's what they'll do, borne by cranes.

The Rhine maidens who guard the gold splash in Plexiglas water tanks; the basses portraying the giants Fafner and Fasolt perch on apparatuses that make them tower over the stage. At the end of "Das Rheingold," 30 lithe extras will rise into the air on cables, then link together to form Valhalla, the gods' fortress.

"We opened Wagner's score and followed what he wrote and made it happen," Padrissa said. "This is more than enough, because Wagner's imagination was really big. … It didn't need anything extra."

"With our 'Ring,' we are trying to overflow the stage," Padrissa said.

The gadgetry has forerunners going back to Wagner's time, when the first Rhine maidens rode in baskets while making swimming motions.

Summers said the power of Padrissa's staging comes from its faithfulness to Wagner's stage directions and its ensuing clarity.

"It might be Earth a few centuries from now. ... It may be some other place that's like us," Summers said. "The feelings and the struggle between power and love are recognizable in every world."

HGO will join a mere handful of U.S. companies that have staged the "Ring," said Marc Scorca, president of the national organization Opera America. New York's Metropolitan Opera, the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Seattle Opera periodically perform the cycle; Los Angeles Opera staged its first "Ring" in 2010. Washington National Opera will resume its first cycle in 2016 after a recession-induced hiatus. Arizona Opera staged the "Ring" in the 1990s.

Having the financial, musical and theatrical resources available says something about a city, Scorca said, and marshaling them successfully is a testimony to an opera company.

"It certainly is a sign of achievement in the cultural milieu that not many cities can rise to," Scorca said.

Houston Grand Opera began planning for the "Ring" seven or eight years ago, managing director Perryn Leech said.

"You don't just decide to do a 'Ring' cycle," Leech said. "You have to build your artistic forces to the stage where they can do justice to a 'Ring' cycle. It can't be overstated, the amount of stress and strain it puts on a company."

Los Angeles Opera's $31 million "Ring" demonstrated the risks. With three performances of the entire cycle within a month, the production ended with a $6 million deficit.

The company attributed most of the shortfall to weak sales of four-opera packages, which averaged $1,098; the box office resorted to selling tickets to individual operas at steep discounts.

Baton Rouge donors

Having seen the red ink elsewhere, Leech said, HGO began raising money in 2012 with its $165 million "Inspiring Performance" fund drive, which included part of the cost of the "Ring." About $5.2 million has been pledged for the project so far.

The lead donors are two Wagner lovers from Baton Rouge, La.: John Turner and Jerry Fischer, who last year promised $2 million.

They have traveled across the United States and Europe to hear Wagnerian works, including a "Ring" double feature in 2013. After seeing the cycle performed within a single week at Germany's Bayreuth Festival, which Wagner founded and his descendants still lead, the pair flew to Seattle for another "Ring" beginning the next night.

"Some people can listen to a song over and over because they love it so much," Turner said. "This is 16 hours of music that I can listen to over and over and over, because I think it's so beautiful."

Wagner's ability to combine storytelling, music, and theater is unsurpassed, Fischer said. The power and beauty Wagner draws from his oversized orchestra are another draw.

The pair helped sponsor Houston Grand Opera's 2009 staging of Wagner's "Lohengrin." When the company proposed tackling the "Ring," Turner and Fischer made their pledge.

"It's time Houston did the 'Ring,'" Fischer said. "We wanted to ensure that it happened sooner rather than later."

'Ring' for four years

The operas' size and complexity present further challenges, such as sheer stamina, for orchestra, singers and audiences alike: "Twilight of the Gods" clocks in at more than five hours, including intermissions.

To prepare everyone for the long nights, Leech says, the company led into the "Ring" with a series of massive, demanding operas, including Wagner's five-hour love story "Tristan and Isolde" in 2013.

Stretching the "Ring" across four years will provide more time not only for fundraising, but also for the performers and backstage workers to get a grip on Wagner's demands, Leech said.

"I would equate this to a team that does a lot of high-profile football matches during the season, and then they get to the Super Bowl," Leech said.

"Once you get to the Super Bowl, everybody's watching, not just your local audience. We don't want to be the Denver Broncos."