Is it really ten years since the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre? As part of the celebrations we were presented with a coruscating account of the final act of the second part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle – regarded by many as the pivotal section of the drama.

From the opening moments as the eight immensely impressive Valkyries ‘flew’ onto their mountain top to the accompaniment of some of the composer’s most familiar music played by the vast orchestral forces (superbly marshalled by maestro Lothar Koenigs), we were plunged into the heart of the emotional maelstrom. The fact that we were denied acts one and two barely seemed to matter – this is an act that works perfectly in isolation and in a concert performance.

At the centre was the conflict of the two main protagonists – Wotan and his favourite daughter Brünnhilde - as the enraged father eventually casts his disobedient daughter into an enchanted sleep (in which she remains until the operatic sequel ‘Siegfried’)surrounded by magical flames at the opera’s conclusion. Few can have so captured Wotan’s anger and pain as Bryn Terfel. Now in his 50th year he is a titanic presence at the peak of his powers. Here, in a role with which he is particularly associated, he has rarely sounded more vocally assured and, here alongside the excellent Swedish soprano Iréne Thurin (particularly moving in the final ‘Leb’wohl’ ), managed to sustain the dramatic line superbly through its lengthy unfolding .