Arias for all as Terfel makes a triumphant return

Bryn Terfel’s performances usually elicit adjectives like ‘towering’ and ‘commanding’, usually in the attempt to capture the Welsh bass-baritone’s roles in Wagner’s rarefied world of gods and goblins. Terfel is no opera snob, though, and when it comes to pleasing concert audiences, his big feet are firmly planted on Planet Earth.

The Times of London put it in a nutshell when it declared Terfel “a born communicator who loves words ...