Welsh National Opera paid its annual spring visit to our region last week with a programme of three shows united under the the title Spellbound.

This was entirely appropriate for the two welcome revivals of the much admired company productions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel, in both of which enchantment plays a large part; less so, perhaps, for the third offering, Chorus!, a sort of greatest hits show featuring star soprano Lesley Garrett. Not much to spellbind there, for this reviewer at least.

What a joy it was, though, to be reacquainted with the many delights of the other two productions, superbly delivered under the baton of WNO’s music director Lothar Koenigs. Both were sung in English, unusually for the company; both were characterised by startling visuals (designer Julian Crouch for The Flute, with its retinue of angel chefs, John Macfarlane for Hansel & Gretel) and, besides brilliant singing, some first-class acting.

Outstanding in that last respect were Jacques Imbrailo. hilarious as The Flute’s Papageno, and Jurgita Adamonyté as a headstrong Hansel, one of the most convincing performances I have seen in a trouser role. She shared singing honours with Ailish Tynan’s Gretel in presenting the richly melodic score, with its many acknowledgements to the German folk song tradition.

Christopher Gray