As with WNO’s 31-year-old production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, which is heading for Oxford again later in the year, Jonathan Miller’s celebrated 1950s New York mafia ‘take’ on Verdi’s Rigoletto, first seen in 1982, remains in the repertoire of English National Opera principally because it works so well.

The formidable challenges in staging always presented by the action of this groundbreaking work — especially those concerned with Gilda’s abduction and her self-planned murder — are neatly and credibly dealt with. It all makes sense.

In its 12th return to the London Coliseum, the production still looks good. Designers Patrick Robertson and Rosemary Vercoe transport us to a recognisable Big Apple of glitzy hotel bars – where crime boss The Duke (excellently portrayed by the 25-year-old American tenor Michael Fabiano) holds court with his sharp-suited gang of hoodlums — and wind-swept, Hopperesque mean streets where the hit-man Sparafucile (Brindley Sherratt) and his evil sister Maddalena (Madeleine Shaw) lie in wait.

A series of exceptionally strong performances under the American conductor Stephen Lord ensures that it sounds marvellous, too.

None is stronger than that of Anthony Michaels-Moore in the title role, with the aching tenderness of his first scene with daughter Gilda (Katherine Whyte) contrasting perfectly with the later torment of a father conscious that his conduct has consigned her to her doom. The Duke’s enemy Monterone, whose curse so troubles Rigoletto, is given a powerful portrayal, vocally reminiscent of Mozart’s Commendatore, by Iain Paterson.

There are performances until October 23. Call 0871 911 0200 (www.eno.org).