It was change-over time in two key roles as Welsh National Opera rounded off the trio of productions on its annual spring visit to our region with a superb revival under conductor Anthony Negus of Lluis Pasqual’s 2009 The Marriage of Figaro. Springing jauntily into the breeches role of Cherubino came Patricia Orr. Rarely have I seen the lovestruck lad better presented — with all the comic business perfectly executed in pert style by this able actress and Mozart’s taxing vocal line addressed with great accomplishment.

The object of his adolescent passion, meanwhile, the Countess Almaviva, was portrayed in suitably stately fashion by the second newcomer, Camilla Roberts. From the confident account of her Act II entrance soliloquy, the hugely challenging Porgi amor, it was clear that hers would be an invaluable contribution to the evening’s success. She, too, showed a sure grasp on the opera’s hilarious comic business which was here played (under revival director Caroline Chaney) for every laugh it could earn.

That her stateliness extended to her height, augmented by heels in white satin, made it unlikely indeed that she could have been so comprehensively confused, during the high-jinks of the final garden scene, with the diminutive Susanna of Elizabeth Watts, a delicious ornament to the evening both aurally and visually. But if disbelief cannot be successfully suspended in the opera house — all those singing people! — then where, pray, can it be?

David Soar (pictured) was an authoritative central presence throughout as the quick-thinking Figaro, while Uraguayan baritone Dario Solari showed us a gleefully lecherous Count Almaviva, the manservant’s rival for Susanna’s charms. That he first bounded on to the stage, clutching a racket in “anyone for tennis?” style, fitted the mood of a production whose 1930s period flavour reflected a time when farce like this flourished. That Countess Almaviva was clearly in the van of fashion was demonstrated in Paco Azorin’s glorious sets, one of which was surely inspired by Syrie Maugham’s all-white room of 1927.

There is a further performance of The Marriage of Figaro at Milton Keynes tomorrow night. Tonight WNO offers La traviata.