Students are being invited to discover Wagner at a special performance of part of the Royal Opera House's forthcoming Ring cycle.

Accredited students will be able to buy reduced price tickets for Das Rheingold, one of the four operas in the musical epic, on 12 October, it was announced on 30 August.

The date has been added to lure new audiences to Covent Garden amid mounting excitement over one of this autumn's hottest arts tickets.

The entire sequence of operas - Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Gotterdämmerüng - has not been performed together in London for a decade.

In spite of mixed reviews as each opera has been unveiled over the last three years, about 50,000 tickets for the complete cycle were snapped up as soon as they went on sale.

A set of top-price tickets costs £850 although quick-acting budget buyers could have secured the set for £32.

Elaine Padmore, Covent Garden's director of opera, said there was a gap in the schedule for one extra performance for new audiences.

"Hopefully we will get a lot of first-time Wagnerites who have heard all the fuss about the Ring and decide to see what's in it for them."

The buzz surrounding the production, which stars Placido Domingo and Bryn Terfel, is immense. More than 5,000 people signed up as soon as online registration was opened last summer.

Ms Padmore said: "We simply had no idea what the response would be, particularly as the four operas had all been launched separately, but people signed up in vast numbers. A lot of people who would have expected to get tickets, like the Friends, found that tickets seemed to have disappeared overnight."

To meet demand, the ROH decided in May to make the dress rehearsals paying previews in addition to the three full cycles planned. Those tickets, too, went quickly, mainly to people who had been let down earlier.

It now leaves only students who will pay between £3 and £37.50 for tickets for 12 October and people prepared to queue on the day with a chance of seeing part of a music marathon of around 15 hours.

The commitment required seems to add to the attraction. "You're part of a big event, part of something that everyone is talking about and something you can really get involved in," Ms Padmore said.