Welsh baritone invites a few special guests ... and us ... to his 50th

Every so often in the arts, you get lucky enough to be in the presence of greatness. To see or to hear people so remarkable it's simply an honour to share the same air and get to experience whatever it is they do.

Such it was last night with Bryn Terfel.

The world-famous Welsh bass-baritone is the aural equivalent of being bathed in warm honey. His voice seems to resonate within your body itself; I swear my veins were trembling to his thrilling low notes. Don't believe me? Take whatever opportunity presents itself and see him live. The you'll understand.

But Bryn himself was only half the pleasure of the evening. You see, we were guests at his 50th birthday party. Alongside the actor Michael Sheen and Sting. Oh, and 5,000 other punters who thought to book early enough to snag one of the seats in the Royal Albert Hall before it became a sell out.

It was a delightful evening very obviously crafted with enormous input from Terfel himself. His repertoire went from the expected operatic arias to American spirituals to Welsh hymns to show tunes to pop anthems. Terfel is well known for his range of interests, so if you've read anything about him this is no surprise.  He's also regularly lauded for supporting young artists, and he balanced his performances with up-and-comers like the men's a cappella group Only Men Aloud and the Welsh Folk band Calan.  (The last are the ones who have earned my next iTunes download. Toe-tapping delight.) A host of fellow opera professionals brought favourite tenor and soprano arias into the mix. It was all hosted by Sheen (another proud Welshman) with a humour and intimacy that made it feel like we really were friends at a medium-sized do rather than paying guests.

The most amazing part of the whole night, however, was the addition of another legend. It turns out Sting had asked Terfel to sing at his 50th, and now the Welshman was returning the favour. Those two stars doing an improvisational riff on Roxanne was one of the most astonishing things I've ever heard in a theatre.

They were filming and I expect that somewhere, sometime soon, this will turn up on TV. Don't miss it. Terfel's voice doesn't quite wrap itself around your heart over the screen as it does live (I know ... we've watched him in a lot of Wagner) but it will still be remarkable.

And a reminder for next time: You should ALWAYS book into one of the restaurants inside the Royal Albert Hall at the same time you book the tickets. This is a rare venue in that it's NOT surrounded by dining options; you really are stranded if you want to get something within a stone's throw. I thought we'd be clever and pick up something light at one of the bars that didn't require booking. There are few seats, the pre-packaged fare is indifferent and we still spent £68. (Half of that on wine, admittedly.) For perhaps £20 more we would have had proper food and civilised seating.