Some of the world's best-loved melodies exerted their power to stir the soul as Welsh National Opera returned to Oxford with Georges Bizet's Carmen, writes Chris Gray.

What a splendid start this gave to the company's summer visit, with its famous chorus and orchestra - jackets off in the heat - on sparkling form under conductor Graham Jackson.

First seen at the Apollo three years ago, the production is less successful visually. The sombre scenery and costumes, and minimalist sets, hardly suggest sensuality under the Spanish sun. Indeed, it is only in the final act in the Seville bull-ring that the stage bursts into welcome colour, with a parade of vivid fashions and huge bowls of oranges diagonally arranged across it.

By then, of course, the action is far from bright in tone, as the jealous former dragoon Don Jos - powerfully sung by Italian tenor Carlo Ventre - prepares to punish the perfidy of his mistress.

Imelda Drumm, a singer with formidable vocal and acting talents, offers a superb performance as Carmen. Sultry, sizzlingly seductive, selfish in pursuit of pleasure, the gipsy holds every man in thrall - and maintains a pretty firm control, too, over her pals in the cigarette factory and later the smugglers' gang.

We see excellent acting as well - and don't forget that Carmen has a higher-than-usual quotient of spoken dialogue - from the tall and imposing Paul Whelan, as the charismatic matador Escamillo, whom Carmen comes to love once she has tired of the doting Jos.

Loud applause was earned last night for the soaring soprano voice of Rosalind Sutherland, as Michala, the girl from Jos's Basque village who tries unsuccessfully to keep him on the straight and narrow.

Elsewhere, there is fine work from Gail Pearson and Claire Bradshaw, as Carmen's gipsy chums, Frasquita and Mercds, and from Simon Thorpe, as the leader of the smugglers' gang.

Carmen can be seen again on Friday. Meanwhile, WNO's season continues tonight with a production of Richard Strauss's ever-popular Der Rosenkavalier.