Wagner's Ring Cycle attracts very particular opera obsessives known as Ring nuts and they're headed Down Under.
They're the opera equivalent of Swifties or Deadheads and travel the world for the 15-hour epic staged in four performances.
Among them are divorced couple Heidi Munzinger, 67, and John Shott, 73, who are coming from San Francisco in December to see Opera Australia's production in Brisbane.
"It's a California thing - the marriage was a failure, the opera has been a rousing success, we are still the best of friends," Munzinger tells AAP.
The Ring Cycle first premiered in 1876 and is made up of four operas based on Norse legends: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.
Munzinger and Shott have seen all four at least 15 times but the Brisbane production is of particular interest: it's the first time the operas have been staged using massive banks of digital screens.
It's a marriage of old mythology and new technology fit for the digital age, says director and production designer Chen Shi-Zheng.
Making the videos for 23 towering choreographed LED screens has taken about four years, with digital elements also part of the costume design.
It's not the only groundbreaking aspect of this production, which also marks the first time in 147 years the epic has been directed by a person of colour.
"It's an honour but it's also a burden to not come from western culture," Chen says.
(It is worth noting Richard Wagner was an anti-semite and decades after his death in 1883, his music was appropriated by the Nazis.)
Engaging with Wagner's most ambitious operas, Chen has broadened their mythological field to take in elements of Chinese legend.
This includes, for example, 3D printing a model of an ancient bonsai tree found near Shanghai and transforming it into a seven-metre-high set piece which appears to flower and then decay.
There are 350 cast and crew working on the production, with renowned performers who specialise in the Ring including conductor Philippe Auguin and German tenor Stefan Vinke in his internationally-acclaimed role of Siegfried.
Australian singers are making their debuts in some main roles too, with bass Daniel Sumegi playing Wotan and soprano Anna-Louise Cole as Brünnhilde.
Dress rehearsals in Brisbane are underway at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Chen says directing all four operas is a test of stamina as much as it is of his love for The Ring.
"You need every ounce of brainpower to get through this 15 hours of music," he says.
"It's a nonstop saga to go through, a huge undertaking."
So what's the attraction of an opera so big it tests the devotion of even its director?
Shott and Munzinger have been to almost every production staged in the US since 1999 and say it's simply an extravaganza with amazing music.
Even those who would never venture near a concert hall would know some of the tunes: The Ride of the Valkyries is part of the soundtrack for everything from Apocalypse Now to episodes of the Big Bang Theory and Bugs Bunny.
"Even for someone like me who is essentially a musical village idiot, the music hits you so deeply that you are just sucked in," Shott says.
The complete Ring Cycle took Wagner about 26 years to compose and with a story based on Norse legends, he wanted it to be a "Gesamtkunstwerk" - a complete artwork, synthesising music and drama.
Munzinger and Shott have spent almost as long getting their fix of The Ring wherever they can find it and have met dozens of like-minded friends from around the world in the process.
Their advice to anyone wondering about the stamina required for such long performances (Götterdämmerung runs just under seven hours, including intervals) is to take the day off beforehand, wear comfortable clothes and shoes, eat lightly and... don't overhydrate.
"Some of the operas don't have bathroom breaks built in," says Munzinger.
Yet at the end of every epic performance, they are so in awe of the singers they just want to do it all again.
Who knows if Chen will feel the same? He likens the challenge of directing the full cycle to climbing Mt Everest and feels he's on the final stretch.
If the Opera Australia production has made it to Base Camp IV, then the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is just starting the climb.
On Thursday, the Symphony will perform Das Rheingold in concert, launching a four-year mission to stage the complete cycle in Sydney for the first time in 20 years.
Simone Young conducts Das Rheingold at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall on Thursday and Saturday.
Three complete cycles will be staged at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane by Opera Australia with performers from Opera Queensland, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Dancenorth, from December 1 - 21.
