This delightful production from Swansea City Opera could well prove to be the turning point in its fortunes: having already staged Cosi Fan Tutte - which would have worked better in a more intimate venue - and the infinitely more effective Barber of Seville, the company has now turned its attention to this timeless work by Georges Bizet, a fantasy evolving around a love triangle in ancient Ceylon(Sri Lanka).

And truth to tell, this one is a cracker - not only in terms of the vocal strengths and performances of its four-strong cast(Fabienne Borget, Nicholas Ransley, Adrian Powter and Paul Hudson)but also in its visual approach and ability to engage an audience whose previous knowledge of the genre is at best sketchy.

Artistic director Brendan Wheatley maintains that the company's greatest strength is its ability to adapt itself to a variety of venues, and this is certainly evident here. The set - a deceptively simple two-dimensional backdrop comprised of a series of layers - is given weight and solidity by Mark Satchell's fantastic lighting design, while Tess Gibbs' sharp choreography does not dominate too much of the available space and can obviously be scaled up or down as required.

This is magical stuff, subtly delivered and never straying into the kind of overblown pretension that is so often seen in the productions of more high-profile companies.

SCO's productions tend to attract a very different crowd from those of Welsh National Opera, which is perhaps no bad thing. High time that those to whom the joys of operatic performance have remained unknown for far too long should at last get the chance to experience it for themselves - and having been bitten by the bug, one hopes that they will want to repeat the experience time and time again.

GRAHAM WILLIAMS

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