"Despite our attempts to live without formal religion" writes Scruton, "we are no more free than people ever have been or ever will be from the religious need".
He adds: "I have loved The Ring and learned from it for over 50 years and for me, it is quite simply the truth about our world - but the truth expressed by means of music of unquestionable authority and supreme melodic and harmonic power".
Listen back to BBC Radio 4's A Point of View - The Ring of the Nibelung