‘We carry 24 corsets round the country for Traviata,” announces Welsh National Opera touring wardrobe manager Judith Russell cheerily.

“Each one takes half an hour to lace up and adjust — the singers tell you how tight they would like them, we tell them how tight they have to be.

“By the end of the process, some singers get a bit flappy!”

A group of journalists from across the country has gathered in WNO’s cavernous headquarters at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre to look behind the scenes.

It feels very much the same as visiting the Cowley Mini plant: components for several different operas are in different stages of preparation in different parts of the building. All must come together at exactly the right moment to produce a complete finished product.

On the stage of Wales Millenium Centre itself final preparations are being made for the dress rehearsal of La traviata — the production will be at Milton Keynes Theatre on March 20 and 23.

In charge here is stage manager Julia Carson Sims, who has been with WNO since the 1980s. Unseen by audiences, it is she who makes sure that performances run smoothly.

“Stress can be good as well as bad,” Julia tells us. “The key thing is: do not panic — you can’t think straight. I don’t use written lists to remind me of what I need to do — I tick things off a guilt list which I carry in my head.”

Meanwhile across town, WNO’s scenery building arm, Cardiff Theatrical Services, is working on the sets for a brand new production of La Bohème, which will reach Oxford in October.

A huge metal, wood, and plastic frame is under construction, which will form a centrepiece of the main set.

As he takes us round, I ask general manager Darren Joyce whether he ever sees the designs for a new production, and says: “You’ve got to be joking”?

“I try and say it a bit more tactfully than that! Normally finance comes into it, and whether the proposed design will fit into the theatres we tour to. This Bohème design included a big circular staircase, but it would have cost £30-40,000 to build. So it got cut. Just as well, it would have been horrible to take on the road.”

Finally, it’s back to the Millennium Centre to meet chief executive and artistic director David Pountney, who took up his post last September. He was born in Oxford.

“My parents used to go to the New Theatre regularly: we lived about nine miles outside Oxford, on the way to Wantage.

“I remember going to the initial run of West Side Story before it went to London. I can also remember seeing [Benjamin Britten’s] opera The Turn of the Screw, and being absolutely terrified by the ghosts — this was the English Opera Group in the 1950s. There was still a string trio that played live in the intervals.”

Does this mean, I ask hopefully, that the New Theatre might enjoy a little favouritism, and receive more WNO visits? The answer is no, not unless more grant money is forthcoming. There’s just time for a mini-appraisal: six months into the job, how is David Pountney’s Welsh coming along?

“Not very well,” he laughs. “Coming from Oxford doesn’t help!”

Welsh National Opera is at Milton Keynes Theatre from March 20-24 and at the New Theatre, Oxford, from October 23-27.

Full details and tickets, visit atg.tickets. com/miltonkeynes and atg.tickets. com/oxford respectively.