In a sensational climax to its autumn visit to Oxford, Welsh National Opera delivered a Bohème as heart-rending as any I have seen.

Under the direction of Annabel Arden, co-founder of Complicite, the production possessed the emotional heft and clear-sighted artistic vision of that celebrated theatre company’s best work.

Conductor Simon Phillippo guided the orchestra and singers through Puccini’s hugely inventive and much loved score with utter mastery.

The designs of Stephen Brimson Lewis, expertly lit by Tim Mitchell, transported us to a fin de siècle Paris that was at once both filmlike and entirely convincing. The scenes of festive gaiety (in all senses) in the Latin quarter were particularly well presented.

Despite her distracting resemblance, in bodily posture, to Rising Damp’s Miss Jones, Giselle Allen offered a moving, beautifully sung Mimi. Alex Vicens, as Rodolfo, moved comfortably between the tender scenes with her and the carefree larks with his garret-sharing bohemians. As painter Marcello, David Kempster was mighty of stature and voice, characteristics shared with his Musetta (Kate Valentine).

Shifted to a sixties seaside setting, Cosí fan tutte turned Mozart and Da Ponte’s opera buffa into a jolly jape complete with Punch and Judy and a bearded lady. Best mates Ferrando (Andrew Tortise) and Guglielmo (Gary Griffiths) disguised themselves as Butlin’s-style redcoats to trick Dorabella (Maire Flavin) and Fiordiligi (Elizabeth Watts) into deceiving them, with the help of Don Alfonso (Neal Davies) and Despina (Joanne Boag).

It was a hoot.