We all know Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg to be a great celebration of German culture, but what Wednesday’s concert performance from the Royal Opera brought was an added layer of festivity, launching as it did half a year of events marking the 21st anniversary of Symphony Hall.

The jamboree worked both ways: not only did the packed auditorium experience a tremendous performance of this great masterpiece, but the Royal Opera visitors (particularly the estimable orchestra) relished the opportunity to perform in this great concert-room, with its fabulous acoustic and huge spatial opportunities (what stirring pageantry in the concluding song-contest scene).

It’s always good when opera orchestras are liberated from the pit and let loose on this stage; the joy on the players’ faces was undeniable right from the beginning, when they delivered an account of the marvellous Prelude which lifted and shone, conductor Sir Antonio Pappano shaping Wagner’s intricate contrapuntal strands so transparently, his musicians responding so wholeheartedly.

And then straight into the opening chorale, the huge chorus sonorous and biting in attack, the Symphony Hall organ contributing more presence than any opera-house instrument could.

Thus this near five-hour epic began, but how intimate everything felt, and how quickly the time passed, Pappano’s attention to the detail of this ever-unfolding, organically interlocking score keeping things moving and developing.