More than 1,000 people saw 'The Ring of the Nibelung,' the first of the classic Ring cycle by German composer Richard Wagner, when it opened in Shanghai Thursday. The audience occupied about 90 percent of the seats in the Shanghai Grand Theater, where the four-part opera, a modern adaptation by the Cologne Opera House, will run until Sept. 24, said theater operators. The 2.5-hour non-stop show was the first part of The Rhinegold. The other three parts -- The Valkyrie, Siegfried and The Twilight of the Gods -- will be performed in the following three days, and then it will be repeated. It took Wagner (1813-1883) about 26 years to finally complete the opera in 1876. The Cologne Opera House usually rearranges the classic every 20 years. Shanghai is the first city outside Germany to see the latest version, which debuted in Germany in June 2010. The Ring series is based on the 'Edda,, a northern European myth and the 'Nibelungenlied,' a German folk epic. 