This sometimes cynical old critic was transfixed with delight from the moment the curtain went up, to reveal the courtesan's salon, until the moment it went down, following her death. I was transported, too, to such exotic places as Odessa, Paris, and Venice. Odessa because producer and director of this production of Verdi's La Traviata, Ellen Kent, brought the Ukrainian National Opera Company to perform in Oxford on Saturday, as part of a gruelling tour of Britain.

The company's eastern roots showed in a number of small but significant ways: the simple but magnificent sets for instance were redolent of Tsarist Russia; and even someone not exactly fluent in Italian (like me) could detect a Russian accent in the Italian dialogue and singing - thank heavens for the unobtrusive subtitles.

Paris, because the libretto by Francesco Piave is based on the book and play La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas; and time and again the dreamy beauty of the sets and costumes reminded me of a sort of living French Impressionist painting - something by Berthe Morissot perhaps. And Venice? Well the opera was first performed at La Fenice in 1853, but more personally because the voice of the tenor (Ruslan Zinevych) singing offstage reminded me of one romantic, and yes moonlit, evening I spent in that watery city when I heard the voice of a tenor long before he himself hove into view aboard a gondola.

But here sadly, I must end my eulogy for a brief carp: it was as well that Mr Zinevych was off-stage for that aria, for though the possessor of a wonderful voice he did not have the stage presence to carry off the important part of Violetta's lover. He was simply too young and somehow insubstantial, in addition to which his rendering of the lovely (and famous) aria in which he declares his love was somewhat wooden. I have saved the best till last. Who will not hail the beautiful Maria Tonina, as Violetta, as a rising international star? I feel honoured to have seen her: not only a voice to transport a person out of this world altogether, but an ability to act too (not always present in prime donne).