World-renowned opera star Sir John Tomlinson treated an appreciative Worthing audience to a modern reworking of the god Wotan’s famous scenes from Wagner’s Ring at the Assembly Hall on Saturday evening.

Richard Wagner was born 200 years ago this month, but his legacy is still potent. For those not inclined to sit through the entire Ring cycle of operas, Wotan’s Journey is a wonderful 25-minute introduction to its mythical world and sonorities.

There could be no finer exponent of the role of Wotan than John Tomlinson, who appeared in leading roles at Wagner’s own opera house Bayreuth for 18 consecutive years. Physically imposing, his face fringed with a white beard and a mane of silver hair, Sir John filled the hall with dramatic power and a lifetime’s experience of this great role.

As a contrast, the Worthing Symphony Orchestra’s concert opened more placidly with Bedrich Smetana’s Voltava from Ma Vlast (My Country). This evocation of the great river Voltava follows its course through the Czech countryside past the great Visegrad rock outside Prague, which is the legendary home of the first Bohemian princes.

Conducted by John Gibbons, the orchestra also found the ideal combination of majesty and intensity in Sergei Rachmaninov’s romantic and emotionally charged Second Symphony. The wistful clarinet solo was played with supreme artistry, the brass section distinguished itself and the whole orchestra performed superbly throughout the evening.

The triumphant ending and resolution of Rachmaninov’s symphony was a fitting finale to a memorable season of concerts, and principal conductor John Gibbons, whose brief introductions to the music are so illuminating, promised the enthusiastic audience an equally stimulating programme from September.