Entertainment

Met’s polished new ‘Ring’

Siegfried (Jay Hunter Morris) prepares for battle with the Met's giant puppet dragon.

Siegfried (Jay Hunter Morris) prepares for battle with the Met’s giant puppet dragon. (Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

Siegfried (Jay Hunter Morris, at left and above) romances Brunnhilde (Deborah Voigt) amid the Met’s mechanized sets.

For sale: one ring, solid gold, some flaws recently repaired.

No, it’s not an ad for Tiffany, but a description of the Met’s new production of Wagner’s epic “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” Tonight marks the launch of the second four-opera, weeklong cycle of musical dramas, often the hottest tickets in town.

So it’s nice to report that Robert Lepage’s set — a 45-ton “machine” of rotating metal beams awash in video projections — is finally working, free of the noisy breakdowns that plagued the show’s two-year rollout. Tuesday night’s conclusion of the first cycle went off without a hitch.

All told, the “Ring” clocks in at 18 hours. Newcomers or those wary of Wagner might prefer simply to sample the saga’s opening episode, “Das Rheingold,” in which the origin of the magic ring is revealed.

This segment also features some of Lepage’s most eye-popping effects, including an underwater scene — conjured with CGI waves — in which swimming Rhinemaidens (on flying wires) taunt the evil dwarf Alberich, chillingly sung by bass-baritone Eric Owens.

The rest of the cycle unfurls like this:

“Die Walküre”: Baritone Bryn Terfel, slimmed down by a good 30 pounds since last season, stars as the god Wotan, who schemes to prevent Alberich from regaining the ring. Musical highlight: the “Ride of the Valkyries,” even more galvanizing in context than it was in the movie “Apocalypse Now.”

“Siegfried”: In the title role as Wotan’s heroic grandson, tenor Jay Hunter Morris forges a magic sword, slays a dragon and braves a wall of fire to wake up the sleeping Valkyrie, Brunnhilde. That last part is sung by soprano Deborah Voigt, who sports a winged helmet just like the one Bugs Bunny wore in “What’s Opera, Doc?”

“Götterdämmerung”: Lepage’s visuals turn repetitive and literal in this tragic finale, but Wagner’s score carries the show with the heartbreaking “Funeral March” for the slain Siegfried.

Remaining tickets to this year’s “Ring” are scarce, even at $2,600 for the entire cycle. If you’re not ready to take so pricey a plunge, you’re in luck: The Met has filmed “The Ring” operas in HD, bringing all four installments to metropolitan-area movie theaters, including the AMC Empire 25 on 42nd Street.

There the ticket price will be roughly the same as that of your average 3-D movie. Happily, no special glasses are required.

“All you need is curiosity and enthusiasm, and an openness,” Voigt says.

“If it’s going to grab you and be part of your life for the rest of your years . . . you will never be the same.”