[Daisy-Chain]

No this is not a musical version of a Marx Brothers film nor a whole lot of singers just singing operatic hits a la Katherine Jenkins which is what I was expecting when I went to the first night in Cardiff on Thursday - it is now touring around the country.

'A Night At The Opera' is a delightful confection of an Operatic Jukebox Musical where they have taken 29 of the best loved operatic masterpieces from Bizet to Verdi performed by 6 very young, in operatic terms, hugely talented singer/actors combined with an inspired story line which to me was 'Friends' meets ''Allo, 'Allo' with a touch of 'Piaf' and a pinch of 'Cabaret'. All together this allowed the arias to be put in context and made it possible to really perform and give meaning not just stand and sing which is what is going on in so many places at the moment. It was the perfect antidote to an attitude to opera of 'overweight, middle-aged singers who spend an entire act dying' the 'it ain't over until the fat lady sings' syndrome. This was young, very attractive to watch, full of humour, yes very s*xy but equally classy.

We were presented with 6 characters, Jonathan Ansell (whose idea this all was) plays an Englishman living above a café/bar in Paris in the 1940's – his call up forms the basis of the story. He is joined on stage by Toby Stafford Allen, baritone, as the owner of the bar replete 'Rene' style in waistcoat and apron, his character seems to have a bit of a thing about Silvia Collaca, mezzo, her character a cross between Marlena Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn as she wore trousers at the beginning but became very glam later on. Then they are joined by Anna-Clare Monk, soprano, a femme fatale who starts to work in the bar who enters with her besotted young lover Telman Guzhevsky, tenor, who seems to have all sorts of problems especially with the bottle which he exploits beautifully with some of his arias. And last we are joined by Olivia Safe, soprano, as a rather innocent young girl full of unrequited love.

What follows is a glorious romp through some of the best music ever written in a perfect love story context performed exceptionally well both vocally and visually. As with all good love stories the right couples get it together at the end and when they return to the stage for the finale with 'Nessun Dorma' – No One Shall Sleep we all know that is indeed the case - might not be quite as erotic as Piaf but you get the idea ...

I am not sure how this will appeal to purists, I suppose it is designed for the new crossover fan but they are true to the actual aria - no messing about with pop arrangements or changing the key in case someone can't reach the top note however for those who know the context of the original settings I think that would be a great advantage. The whole audience got it though as they received a standing ovation. It just shows that opera can be young, engaging and great, great fun even when you don't understand one word that is being sung!