A RING FOR L.A.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

A RING FOR L.A.: The four operas making up Wagner's Ring Cycle will be introduced by the Los Angeles Opera in seven performances of each work starting in 2008.

Subsequently, in the summer of 2010, the company will present three full Ring Cycles, in which all four Ring operas will be performed over the course of a few days.

The cast will include Placido Domingo, Vitalij Kowaljow, John Treleaven and Linda Watson. L.A. Opera's music director James Conlon will conduct and Achim Freyer will direct.

The total cost of producing and performing the four-part masterpiece is expected to be around $32 million. The bulk of that amount will come from seasonal ticket revenue, annual contributions and incremental funding, of which $6 million was donated by the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Foundation.

BERLIN OPERA: German lawmakers called on authorities Friday to guarantee the security of a Berlin opera house that pulled a production featuring the severed head of Muhammad, amid ongoing calls to stage the production as a sign of moral courage.

A leading member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party said he understood the decision by the director of the Deutsche Opera to cancel its previously scheduled fall performances of Mozart's ``Idomeneo'' after security officials determined that the 3-year-old production posed an ``incalculable security risk.''

But he joined Merkel and other members of her cabinet in calling for the production to be staged.

``It is in the interest of the opera house, the company and all opera-goers to actively help create the necessary security'' for the opera to be produced, Wolfgang Bosbach said.

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Placido Domingo will perform in L.A. Opera's Ring Cycle.

Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images