The production, which was conceived by Gergiev and set designer George Tsypin, premiered in St. Petersburg in 2003. It will travel to the Orange Country Performing Arts Center in Southern California in October 2006 as part of the opening of OPAC's Ren_e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and will be seen at the Lincoln Center Festival in summer 2007. Plans for a Beijing staging are also in the works, according to the Millennium Centre.

The Kirov's production, according to a previously issued press release, is "based on Russian, Caucasian, and especially Scythian folk mythology."

"The production," Gergiev said, "was completely developed in St. Petersburg using our knowledge, our emotions, and our ideas. In Ossetia, where I come from, our own folktales parallel the myths that inspired Wagner, so I knew we would be able to find a new visual approach to the Ring that is internationally understandable."

Judith Isherwood, chief executive of the Wales Millennium Centre, said, "The performance of the Mariinsky Theatre's Ring cycle as a U.K. exclusive represents a very important landmark for WMC—it is without doubt one of the highlights of our year and reinforces our position as a major player in opera and in the arts in general."

Tickets are Ô£120-Ô£500 for the entire cycle; they go on sale on March 27 at www.wmc.org.uk.