Claudia Chapa as Fricka and Kyle Albertson as Wotan in Virginia Opera's performance of Richard Wagner's "The Valkyrie.". Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 at Harrison Opera House in Norfolk. (Dave Pearson Photography)

Can the bombastic — say, women galloping through the sky on horses, carrying heroes’ corpses and sing-shouting “Hoyotoho! Hoyotoho! Heiaha! Heiaha!” — also be beautiful?

It can when accompanied by one of the world’s most readily identifiable, most often borrowed pieces of music, “The Ride of the Valkyries.” Recall the song’s use, says New Yorker writer Alex Ross, in “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), “Apocalypse Now” (1979), plus “What’s Opera, Doc?” (1957, starring that wascally wabbit, Bugs). Bombast is, in fact, often wed to beauty in Virginia Opera’s pared-down version of Richard Wagner’s second opera of his Ring cycle, an adaptation of “The Valkyrie” by Jonathan Dove and Graham Vick, opening Friday. (This review is of Wednesday’s Student Night performance.)

Can an arrogant but brilliant artist’s work be separated from his virulent views in real life, especially his noxious antisemitism that so enthralled Hitler long after Wagner’s death?

That’s a more serious question, and it looms especially large in a country and community such as ours where security guards must be hired for synagogues. There’s no glib answer, with much depending on one’s background and faith. When we talk about Wagner, we need to consider all that’s best and worst in both art and humanity. If that statement seems extreme, it needs to be. (The Virginia Opera sponsored a panel on the topic at Ohef Sholom Temple in Norfolk on Sept. 13; a recording is available on both organizations’ websites.)

When the opera tackled “Das Rheingold,” the first opera in the “Ring of the Nibelung,” last year at Top Golf, the lighthearted nature of the outdoor pandemic production distracted from the usual Wagnerian dilemma (golf togs on singers, entrances by golf cart, the audience sitting where duffers usually tee off). But this second opera in the cycle, done back at Harrison Opera House as the kickoff to a full season, brings it back full force. This despite the outrageous but often fun decisions by director Joachim Schamberger involving costuming (Wotan looks just like a Borg on TV’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) and scenery (electronic projections galore of horses rearing up, random computer designs, floating fetuses).

Richard Trey Smagur as Siegmund. (Dave Pearson Photography)

But let’s return a moment to Wagner (1813-83) — the composer, librettist, director, designer, total showman — who gave us now indispensable concepts such as the “Gesamtkunstwerk” (the totally unified work of art) and “leitmotif” (a sonic thread that follows an idea or character), in his dozen or so major operas always being done somewhere in the world, nowadays even in Israel. A contemporary of Marx, Darwin and Freud, Wagner was a philosopher, anarchist, adulterer and often exile from his native Germany.

The artistic father of Siegfried, the hero conceived (by twin siblings) in “The Valkyrie,” Wagner also had a son of that name. But Siegfried the character predates Wagner by centuries. He lifted it from sources as varied as “Das Nibelungenlied” (1180-1210), the “Poetic Edda,” the “Völsunga saga” and his contemporaries the Brothers Grimm — all this according to Virginia Opera’s indispensable scholar in residence, Joshua Borths.

If Wagner’s rings, dwarves, giants, dragons and more rings sound familiar, it’s because we see them further borrowed by writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin to make TV shows being binged this very minute by millions for those Nordic remixes “Rings of Power” (on Amazon Prime) and “House of the Dragon” (HBO Max).

But didn’t someone mention a Borg (from “cyborg”) being the apparent inspiration for Wotan’s costuming?

That’s because director Schamberger, scenic and costume designer Court Watson and lighting designer Driscoll Otto have created things futuristic and sci-fi in this “Valkyrie,” eschewing the usual Viking helmets-with-horns vibe.

Kyle Albertson as Wotan and Claudia Chapa as Fricka. (Dave Pearson Photography)

The women in this production are winsome and have the requisite big voices, especially mezzo-soprano Claudia Chapa, doubling as Fricka and Waltraute, and soprano Alexandra Loutsion as Brünnhilde. Fricka is the goddess of marriage always contending with the philandering of her husband Zeus (or here, Wotan). Brünnhilde and her sisters, whose job it is to carry fallen heroes to Valhalla, were conceived by their father Wotan with another woman and therefore clash with their stepmother Fricka, setting up some of the tragic events.

Wotan, baritone Kyle Albertson, is also father to our ill-fated twins Siegmund (tenor Richard Trey Smagur) and Sieglinde (soprano Meghan Kasanders). Albertson, also Wotan in last year’s “Das Rheingold,” is suitably more earnest and in fine voice here. Hunding (bass bad guy Ricardo L. Lugo) likewise holds his own, claiming that his marriage vows with Sieglinde, though forced, are valid. As scholar Borths points out in his pre-show lecture (also available at vaopera.org), the theme of legality versus morality looms large in this work and indeed human history.

Though the futuristic design concept — a multistep turntable and higher-level circular entrance serving as interior door, moon and more — is entertaining in itself, the constant projections eventually wear on eye and soul, and the idea of Valkyries’ carrying bits and pieces of dead bodies in net bags is just icky. So, of course, is the theme of incest — which Wotan tolerates and Fricka (and we in the audience) abhor. The latter is part of the opera that unfortunately cannot be changed and have it remain this opera. Design notions, on the other hand, are to some extent re-thinkable.

The third opera of the series, “Siegfried,” will be performed in September 2023. Brünnhilde, who ends this installment in a burning ring of fire, will ride again. Hoyotoho! Heiaha!

Page Laws is dean emerita of the Nusbaum Honors College at Norfolk State University. prlaws@aya.yale.edu

When: 8 p.m. Friday, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Harrison Opera House, 160 W. Virginia Beach Blvd., Norfolk

Fairfax: 8 p.m. Oct. 8, 2 p.m. Oct. 9. Center for the Arts, George Mason University

Richmond: 8 p.m. Oct. 14, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 16. Dominion Energy Center

Details: ticketmaster.com, 757-664-6464