A scene from Goetterdaemmerung, The Ring of the Nibelung. The Cologne Opera will fly in 315 artists and 30 containers of props for its grand presentation in Shanghai. [Photo: China Daily]

A full cycle live production of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung to coincide with the Expo will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most opera fans.

Impresario Wu Jiatong remembers clearly when the idea first dawned on him to stage Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung. It was around New Year's day in 2008 and he was taking Markus Stenz on a river cruise along the Huangpu River. Enjoying the impressive skyline of Shanghai, he muttered: "We should do The Ring for the Shanghai Expo."

Stenz is the chief conductor of Cologne Philharmonic, which was touring the city, but he is also music director of Cologne Opera, which performed an internationally acclaimed production of the opera in the first half of the decade.

The Ring is the holy grail of Western opera. A theater that mounts the 16-hour, four-night event is tantamount to a city hosting the Expo in terms of cultural bragging rights.

Wagner took 26 years to finish the tetralogy, and it premiered in 1876. The Chinese debut came at the 2005 Beijing International Music Festival, 129 years later. It was a Nuremberg Opera production.

"That one was not big in scale. So, it traveled well," says Wu, who is general manager of Wu Promotion Co. "The Cologne Opera production is much bigger. It won't be scaled down."

The props and stage scenery alone fill up 30 containers and will travel by sea. Up to 315 artists from Cologne Opera will fly to Shanghai. Even if all tickets for the two cycles - a total of eight nights - are sold out, it will barely cover the operating costs on the Chinese side.