In Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle of operas, gods and mortals seek out a magical golden ring that will allow its owner to achieve world domination.

Sound familiar?

From the Lord Of The Rings trilogy to the Marvel universe, popular culture has more in common with the 19th-century German composer's work than modern audiences might expect.

On Sunday, the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) will bring The Valkyrie, the most popular opera in the Ring cycle, to Singapore for the first time - 150 years after it premiered in Germany.

The semi-staged production, the orchestra's largest to date, is a $400,000 undertaking with an international cast of 14, as well as more than 100 musicians.

It will be performed at the Esplanade in German with English surtitles.

"It puts Singapore on the map," says OMM's music director Chan Tze Law, who adds that they might stage the other three Ring operas, depending on the response.

OMM was founded in 2008. It is a volunteer orchestra and just a quarter of its performers are professional musicians.

Prof Chan says the decision to stage The Valkyrie was spurred by the success of the orchestra's fifth-anniversary concert, which featured a mostly Wagner programme; and its first semi-staged opera, Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel, performed in 2017.

Wagner's work is not as foreign as some might think. Ride Of The Valkyries, heard at the start of Act 3, features in several movies.

He is also associated with the concept of the leitmotif - short, recurring musical phrases evoking specific characters or moods - often used in film scores.

In The Valkyrie, the second of four operas in the Ring cycle, long-separated twins Siegmund (Bryan Register) and Sieglinde (Lee Bisset) fall in love when Siegmund takes shelter from a storm at the house of Sieglinde's husband.

This angers the gods, who demand Siegmund's death. Sieglinde and her unborn child are later saved by Wotan's valkyrie daughter Brunnhilde (Alwyn Mellor), who is punished for her defiance.

In Norse mythology, a valkyrie is a female figure who carries heroes off the battlefield to Valhalla - the grand hall of Wotan, also known as Odin.

The singers hail from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Singaporeans Jade Tan and Janani Sridhar play two of the valkyries.

The set will be minimalistic, says director Edith Podesta.

"I took a lot of inspiration from Wagner's time in the Swiss Alps. Instead of going forward (and) adding more stage, we've gone up. There's a domestic level, a terra firma level and a mountainous region which has four levels."

Multimedia screens will show the singers' faces close up, so "there will be no bad seat", she says.

The Esplanade is considerably larger than some opera houses, and the singers will need to have powerful voices.

But they were also selected for their ability to do justice to the nuances of the opera, Prof Chan adds.

The Valkyrie runs for 31/2 hours, with two intermissions lasting for 30 and 90 minutes.

Podesta thinks this should not put audiences off. "Yes, it's lengthy, but we're used to lengthy. We binge-watch Netflix like it's going out of fashion."

In The Valkyrie, universal themes of power, family and love rear their heads. To hammer home the affinities The Valkyrie might have with modern film franchises, the man behind the posters for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Avengers: Infinity War - Paul Shipper - was enlisted to design the poster for this show.

Podesta adds: "For me, this is Brunnhilde's story. We see her love for her father, her absolute adoration for the gods, her respect for her job. She's strong, she's courageous. She understands that love is stronger than the constructs of heaven.

"This (story) starts with women - something being taken away from their rightful place, something being taken away from Mother Earth - and then something being returned by a woman. The men are the ones who are obsessed with power and the women are obsessed with redressing the balance."

Prof Chan, who is also vice-dean of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, adds: "For the next decade, (OMM) would like to cross genres, cross boundaries and collaborate with as many different artists as possible. Wagner's operas allow us to do that."

• To watch a rehearsal of The Valkyrie, visit: str.sg/JTBy