The sound of Richard Wagner's monumental music thundered over Britain's Glastonbury Festival today, an event best known for its rock bands and techno dance acts.
The composer's Ride of the Valkyries, performed by the English National Opera, was the first opera to be staged at Europe's biggest open-air event.
The ENO performed act three of the Valkyries on the main stage, complete with a 90-piece orchestra and 11 soloists, in a bid to bring opera to a wider audience.
"It was quite moving to hear opera in such a vast outdoor space," one enthusiastic reveller among more than 100,000 festival-goers told BBC Television.
The music is the most famous portion of the composer's 15-hour long Ringcycle and has been featured in countless commercials and films, most famously in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.
Sir Paul McCartney headlined the festival yesterday after a day of rain failed to dampen revellers' spirits. The two-hour set was the finale of a summer tour through Europe which included gigs in Lisbon, Prague, Paris and Helsinki.
Other acts playing at the three-day festival included Oasis, James Brown, Morrissey, Orbital, Basement Jaxx and Aphex Twin.
Glastonbury was first held in 1970 on Michael Eavis' farm near Pilton in Somerset. It was cancelled in 2001 after crime and crowd-control problems a year earlier and reinstated in 2002 with tightened security, including a 10 foot high steel fence.
Police said crime was considerably lower than in previous years. Offences totalled 205 by 8 a.m. today, compared to 353 last year, a reduction of over 40 per cent.
Two women, who were arrested on suspicion of having supplied drugs to a 24-year old British man who died from a suspected overdose on Saturday, were released on bail today.