Tacoma Opera opens the only U.S. staging of Wagner's "Die Walküre" Friday, Oct. 9, at the Pantages Theater, with a second and final performance Sunday, Oct. 11.

The nearly four-hour opera, sung entirely in German with English supertitles, has not been performed anywhere in Washington state in 14 years, The News Tribune reported. The last staging was in Seattle.

Getting Wagner onto the Pantages stage required a feat of musical engineering. Wagner originally scored "Die Walküre" for more than 100 musicians. The Pantages can fit 40.

So conductor Bernard Kwiram rewrote the entire score.

Pianist Jinshil Yi told the News Tribune that Kwiram started the rewrite in June, working 12 to 14 hours a day at his computer. The first violin part alone runs 120 pages.

Yi called the effort to bring the opera to Tacoma "humongous." "Some parts are almost unplayable, they're so hard and dense, but it is masterfully crafted," she said.

All 40 orchestra musicians are local. Many play for Symphony Tacoma and the Tacoma City Ballet, Yi said. The cast, drawn from hundreds of auditions, began rehearsals in September and worked nights and weekends to prepare.

Wagner demands a specific kind of singer. Yi compared the performers to Olympic athletes, saying they possess a rare "Wagnerian voice" powerful enough to project over a dense orchestra.

At a dress rehearsal Wednesday, Oct. 7, News Tribune reporters watched cast members backstage donning Viking pelts, robes and hand-crocheted chain mail that glittered blue, purple, gold and silver under the stage lights.

Behind a velvet curtain on stage left, a sword stuck out of a handmade tree.

"Die Walküre" is the second of four operas in Wagner's "Ring Cycle," which runs 17 hours in total. Tacoma Opera plans to preserve the costumes and sets and may stage the third installment next year, according to Yi.

The Friday performance begins at 7 p.m. The Sunday matinee starts at 2 p.m. Doors open one hour before each show. Tickets range from $34 to $295 and are available at patron.tacomaopera.org. The Pantages Theater is at 901 Broadway.