La Boheme

I guarantee that this production by Welsh National Opera at the Millennium Centre will have a tear trickling down the face of even the most hard-hearted.

Although the tale of the young bohemian artists living and loving in Paris of the 1830s is familiar, the WNO manages to breathe new life into it and weave an effortless spell with the cast's voices and acting.

Mimi is sung by soprano Giselle Allen and her lover Rodolfo by tenor Alex Vicens and they take top marks for their acting, which makes their love story compelling and believable.

This is such a good production that it would be invidious to heap praise on just one of the performers but Kate Valentine really does catch the eye and ear with a sparkling, feisty Musetta.

It is the women who are strongest in this production and Valentine's characterisation convinces as one who is determined to have fun and take her enjoyment where she wants, not where some patriarch or bohemian artist decides on her behalf.

She catches the eye whenever she is on stage and her aria in the Cafe Momus is worth the price of a ticket itself.

The final scene is heart-wrenching, with Mimi's death met by the anguished cry of her name by Rodolfo.

The set is bare simplicity but the staging is breathtaking in its evocation of 19th-century Paris.

There's a highly effective use of technology that makes the Paris skyline glisten with snow and a clever use of effects projectors as smoke pours from the chimneys of those able to afford the fuel.

It is no mean feat to set up a sparkling and fresh production of a perennial opera favourite but the WNO ensemble, under the directorship of Annabel Arden, has produced a work that combines the beautiful music and arias of Puccini with contemporary staging to stunning effect.

You may not be keen on opera but this is such a marvellous production, it may help change your mind.

Catch it in its full glory at the Millennium Centre or while it's on tour.

Runs until October 5 and then tours England and Wales until December 1, details www.wno.org.uk.