“The Ring” is coming — that is, Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung” will soon unfold in our city. Doing the honors is the Kirov Opera of the MariinskyTheater(St. Petersburg), which will perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. Presiding in the pit will be Maestro Valery Gergiev. And “Ring”-heads from all over should pour into New York.

I have long called hardcore fans of this work “‘Ring’-heads,” after the Deadheads of popular-music fame. (Can the Grateful Dead be called “popular music”? I know that people are touchy about classification.) “Ring”-heads travel the world, to see the object of their devotion onstage. And these devotees have excellent taste: “The Ring of the Nibelung” is one of the greatest works of art in history.

Please indulge a dose of basic info. “The Ring” is a tetralogy, and, indeed, many of us know that word precisely because of this work: It’s a four-part, or four-installment, opera. Alternatively, it is a four-opera spectacular. We begin with “Das Rheingold,” or “The Rhine Gold”; we continue with “Die Walküre” (“The Valkyrie”); we move on to “Siegfried”; and we close with “Götterdämmerung,” or “The Twilight of the Gods.”

It is, I repeat, a monumentally great work, and Wagner certainly knew it. He did not have “self-esteem issues.” (He had other issues.) As my colleague Fred Kirshnit has pointed out, Wagner thought that his only peers were the Greeks, and that he was the consummation of all the Greeks started and intended. He can be forgiven (sort of).

“The Ring” is based, not on Greek myth, but on Germanic and Scandinavian myth, and folk tales. Altogether, it lasts about 15 hours. The first installment, “Das Rheingold,” is the shortest. It lasts about two and a half hours, making it a walk in the park, virtually a bagatelle. The last installment, “Götterdämmerung,” is about twice as long.

“The Ring” is intended to be taken in whole, of course, although “Die Walküre,” in particular, stands very well alone. It is pretty much the only installment ever to be presented in isolation. But “The Ring” can be enjoyed in any number of ways (a statement that would start a big fight in a “Ring”-head bar).

Note that Wagner wrote, not only the music, but the words, too. This is a startling achievement — and he eliminated any possible bickering between composer and librettist.

Many claim that “The Ring” represented radical new departures in music, although I lodge a protest: Nothing was unknown to Bach; nothing in music is unfindable in Bach. But if any music of the last 250 years is original, Wagner’s is.

It took him 20 years to complete “The Ring” — something like 1854 to 1874. And a lot can happen to a composer over two decades: The composer of “Götterdämmerung” is certainly different from the composer of “Das Rheingold.” Although, essentially, he is the same guy, the same genius.

One, brief note about the music (or at least a few minutes of the 15 hours): No one should answer the question, “What is the most beautiful piece of music ever written?” But if someone has a gun to your head, threatening to splatter your brains on the pavement, you could do worse than to answer, “‘Wotan’s Farewell’ from ‘Die Walküre.'”

The Lincoln Center Festival and the Metropolitan Opera, which are co-hosting the Kirov “Ring,” offer patrons a choice. The operas will take place over a pair of weekends, July 13 and 14 and July 20 and 21. And they will take place over four consecutive nights: July 16–19. Do what you like (but don’t provoke any fights in bars).

Maestro Gergiev is one of the most interesting conductors in the world, and mercurial. He can conduct like a god one night; and he can conduct rather more mortally the next. It always pays to see what he will do. And we can be assured that he has an intimate relationship with the Kirov Opera, having worked with them for 30 years.

(By the way, every time I write “KirovOpera,”Igetsomemailsaying,”Pleasereferto company as Opera Mariinsky Theater” — because Sergei Kirov was a brutal Bolshevik, the only kind of Bolshevik there was, or is, of course. I am greatly sympathetic to this mail. But my position is: When the company stops calling itself the Kirov Opera, I will.)

Of the many singers in the cast, or casts, I will name three who should stand out: Nikolai Putilin, the wily old baritone, who will share the role of Alberich; Olga Sergeeva, the gifted soprano, who will be one of the Brünnhildes; and Larissa Diadkova, the stunning and powerful mezzo, who will serve as a Fricka.

And what do we know of the production? The PR people tell us it’s a “historic production,” with a “design concept” by Mr. Gergiev and George Tsypin. This concept is “inspired by Ossetian folk myths and Scythian artifacts.” (Mr. Gergiev is Ossetian, and Mr. Tsypin was born in Kazakhstan — don’t tell Borat.) We have here “the first complete ‘Ring’ cycle the Kirov Opera has mounted in almost 100 years.” It is thanks to Mr. Gergiev that Wagner has reemerged in Russia.

I have seen photos of the Gergiev/Tsypin production, and it looks pretty funky: colorful, fanciful, unexpected. The reviews, private and public, will soon be in.

For months, many people have been referring to this as “the Russian ‘Ring.'” But music — certainly high music — knows no nationality. Not really. You can hear a bad Wagner performance in the Bayreuth house, which Wagner built specially to host “The Ring.” You can certainly see a wretched production there. And I imagine you can experience an excellent “Ring” in the African bush. (I exaggerate just slightly.)

My point is, music like this is not dependent on, or hostage to, nationality. You will never get a better Wagner conductor than Cincinnati’s Jimmy Levine. You will never get a more Hans Sachsy Hans Sachs than Baltimore’s James Morris. And so on.

So, the Kirov Opera’s will not be a “Russian ‘Ring.'” It will be Wagner’s “Ring,” or it will be a failure.