The fascination of the Faust legend for Berlioz is hardly surprising. The tale of Faust's existential ennui, his pact with Mephistopheles and the loss of his love, Marguerite, was a logical sequel to the fevered scenario Berlioz had conjured for his Symphonie Fantastique.

But the cantata he called a légende dramatique, intending it for concert performance, requires the listener to free the imagination and be as suggestible as Berlioz was himself. It is hard to resist the notion that, had the composer been born a century and a half later, this would have been a film, with Berlioz writing a Ghost Rider-style screenplay and score as well as directing. So, while the descriptive detail of Faust's misadventure is all there, hearing it live demands an engagement far greater than on radio or CD.

As a vehicle for Welsh National Opera's fine chorus and orchestra, the work is ideal. Although the French words were sometimes lost, the multiple characterisations were vivid, with conductor Carlo Rizzi capturing the vast contrast between pastoral beauty and the horror of the ride to the abyss.

Ann Murray's Marguerite was profoundly musical, if sometimes harsh, while Alastair Miles' Mephistopheles was never less than mesmeric. As Faust, the American tenor Gregory Kunde had a natural clarity and warmth of expression. His tone sounded pinched only on the very highest notes - but he lived every moment, even when not singing.

· Repeated on June 1. Box office: 0870 040 2000. Then at the Hippodrome, Birmingham (0870 730 1234), on June 20.