The revival, for Scottish Opera, opened on Wednesday night and the performance, from the outset, established the credentials of the new cast. They look the part, they act the part, they sing the part and, vitally, they ARE the part.

They slipped into Havergal’s much-loved production as though they had been wearing it for years. Nothing was overdone: the numptiness of Nemorino at the start, the bluster of sergeant Belcore, the bravado of the quack Dulcamara, or the coquettish antics of Adina. Havergal’s genius in the production, picked up by this lovely cast, is his humanity and his understatement.

It’s done by a glance, a turn of the head, a cast of the body, a tip of the shoulder, and so on. There is no rhetoric, not even in daft Belcore’s strutting march.

The singing is very stylish, with Elena Xanthoudakis’s shining soprano voice floating Adina’s coloratura lines weightlessly, Edgaras Montvidas’s lyric tenor a wonderfully-sustained Nemorino, Marcin Bronikowski’s Belcore playing just short of self-caricature, and Francesco Facini’s Dulcamara a perfectly-voiced quack doctor.

Meanwhile, below the decks, there was the racy playing of the Scottish Opera Orchestra with music director Francesco Corti clearly having the time of his life in this exhilarating performance.

Star rating: ****