Glyndebourne’s new production of Verdi’s delicious final opera Falstaff is a triumph for the Oxford-based baritone Christopher Purves who plays the title role with enormous distinction, his flawless singing matched by a rare comic gift as an actor. He stepped up to the role, for the first time, having portrayed the fat knight’s intended cuckold, Ford, with Welsh National Opera last year in a production starring Bryn Terfel. Those of us who saw that performance naturally feared that his Falstaff might prove a poor substitute for that of a singer widely recognised as having been born to play the part.

We need not have worried (no more, indeed, than we needed to for the Greek baritone Tassis Christoyannis whose Glyndebourne Ford easily bears comparison with Purves’s). Our local man’s depiction of Shakespeare’s most famous comic creation, as refined by librettist Arrigo Boito, is wonderful in a subtly different way, cleverly showing us the essential dignity of Sir John through all his vicissitudes and revealing a pride in is his appearance that is not for once altogether misplaced – except, perhaps when he is in those unfortunate shorts!

These are a consequence of director Richard Jones and designer Ultz having updated the action to the late 1940s, a period well suited to some of the spivvery depicted. Such raffish figures as Alasdair Elliott’s Bardoph and Paolo Battaglia’s Pistol will be familiar to readers of the fiction of Patrick Hamilton, say, as will be the Garter Inn, in which they ply their trade. The large ginger tom lazing across the bar top, occasionally stirring, to note human activity (and once to lash out) is a fine comic touch.

Another moggie – grey this time – awaits at the Fords’ riverside home to witness the discomfiture of Falstaff at the hands of Alice Ford (Dina Kuznetsova) and Meg Page (Jennifer Holloway), with the help of Mistress Quickly (Marie-Nicole Lemieux). Happily, the puss dodged the water thrown up by the knight’s descent into the muddy Thames in the laundry basket. Others on stage were not so lucky!

Singing throughout is of a high standard under conductor Vladimir Jurowski. I particularly enjoyed Act III’s opening aria from Bulent Bezduz’s Fenton and the later delicate contribution from his beloved Nannetta (Adriana Kucerova) in her guise as Queen of the Fairies.

There are further performances of Falstaff until July 11. Returns only (01273 813813).