FIRST OFF . . .

Seattle Opera’s internationally recognized production of Richard Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelung” will not be produced as planned in 1988 because of financial problems and a lack of local support, opera officials said. The company has produced its annual “Ring” festival each summer since 1975 and will produce one this summer, but general director Speight Jenkins said Monday the 1988 production would cost more than $2 million--too much in light of Seattle Opera’s finances and with what he called minimal local support. “It is time for the board and staff, and indeed me, to consider with the community when we can afford to do the ‘Ring’ again,” Jenkins said.