I just listened to the 1988 James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra's The Compact "Ring" and I'm completely hooked. It truly is compact and I wish it was longer (yeah, i know...). Is there a two-disc version of all 4 operas that's as sonically righteous as this one? This single disc is on the Deutsche Grammaphon label. Any meaningful advice is helpful...

The two disc (for the price of one) set on Philips with Karl Bohm and the Bayreuth orchestra is a classic. It's called "The Best of the Ring" and it features a cast that is far superior to the one that you're listening to now. When I was in music school I did a paper on "Wintersturme wichen dem Wonnemond" from act 1 of "Die Walkure" and I listened to lot of different versions. The version from this set is my favorite. And Birgit Nilsson kicks ass as Brunnhilde.