Tenor Jay Hunter Morris
Tenor Jay Hunter Morris

Who has the time for that?

It's a common response when considering whether to fill a gap in your artistic education by taking in one of those epic masterpieces you've heard about but never experienced. For example, many a devoted opera lover has never seen a production of Richard Wagner's magnum opus, "The Ring of the Nibelung." Its four operas are customarily presented over four nights, adding up to about 16 hours of being planted in an opera house seat.

But a relatively new company, Minnesota Concert Opera, is here to give you the "Ring Cycle" experience. Sort of. In 1990, composer David Seaman developed something called "The Ring in One Evening" for a company in Nuremberg, Germany. Also known as "The Mini-Ring," it condenses the key plot points and important exchanges within the four operas into a single three-hour-and-45-minute presentation being offered this weekend in a concert format with some top-notch Wagnerian singers and a 16-piece chamber orchestra.

Friday's opening performance at Minneapolis' Cowles Center did quite an admirable job with this "Cliffs Notes" version of opera's most ambitious undertaking, the voices invariably strong, the story clear and relatively easy to follow. It does jettison much of the awe-inspiring grandeur and sense of import as well as most of the great, sweeping orchestral interludes that many regard as the best thing about Wagner. But it nevertheless gives you a good sense of what the "Ring" is all about and allows you to hear some outstanding voices bring it to life.

Eight singers fill 22 roles, but confusion is at a minimum, thanks in part to the CGI projections and supertitles. As often seems the case with concert presentations of operas, the singers have differing ideas as to how much action to convey. On Friday, they ranged from Richard Paul Fink throwing himself full body into the villainous Alberich to Philip Skinner stiffly staring into his music book as the god Wotan.

Veering closer to Fink's take was tenor Jay Hunter Morris, whose Siegfried carried us through his eponymous opera with brashness, snark and arrogance. It was the only one of the four operas in which the cast allowed itself to smirk a bit at the silliness of the whole story line. That would have been welcome in a closing "GÃ¶tterdÃ¤mmerung" that could have used a lot more condensation, perhaps displacing some of Siegfried's drawn-out indictment with something beautiful from the orchestra, like "Siegfried's Rhine Journey" or "Funeral Music."

But it's a matter of debate whether 16 musicians can do these scores justice, even if half of them are locked-out musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra. Yes, the low-end of the register is big in Wagner, creating much menace, but the whole ensemble is bottom-heavy, and there's but one violin to soar skyward.

Speaking of soaring, two women who subbed on short notice were outstanding Friday. Soprano Lori Phillips recently garnered raves in a Seattle Opera "Ring" when filling in as BrÃ 1/4nnhilde, and she proved why here while stepping in for master Wagnerian Jane Eaglen, her spine-tingling voice imbued with power and subtlety. And mezzo Sarah Heltzel stole scenes as Fricka, spewing venom as she skewered husband Wotan as if the building of Valhalla were the ultimate home improvement project run amok.

If you go, get there early enough to read the summary in the program or do some online research beforehand. For there's little time to explain what roles various gods play in the lives of humans. But commit a few more minutes to the experience and you'll be able to say you filled in that gap in your artistic experience. Sort of.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at rhubbard@pioneerpress.com.

When: 2 p.m. Sunday


Tickets: $124-$84, available at 612-206-3600 or thecowlescenter.org

Capsule: Wagner in the fast lane.