'But first we dance' might be the motto of WNO's current production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

Add to that standing on furniture to sing and the distortions created by the huge mirrors of Paco Azorin's sets and you have plenty to enliven the comic goings-on.

First seen in 2009, the production by Lluís Pasqual sets the action in the 1930s. The scenery and milieu are half-realistic, half-expressionistic - maybe symbolic of the political turmoil to come under Franco.

Everyone lapses into dance. The furniture is not only stood upon but also moved around by the Count’s staff as if possessed by some weird settee fetish.

The turmoil is part of the convoluted plot, the 18th-century political overtones much more significant than any updating to the salad days of a tennis-playing Iberian aristocrat.

That said, the 'downstairs' staff of subversives have clearly not been under the cosh for a long while. They're led by David Soar's evenly-sung Figaro and brought to a pitch by Elizabeth Watts's peerless Susanna. The new Count is the South American baritone Dario Solari, bringing a beefy earnestness to the role. Rebecca Evans as the Countess delivers her famous arias with thought and fine feeling, the desolation barely touched by the character's lingering high spirits.

Jurgita Adamonyté is a spritely, Puckish Cherubino. The rest of the cast, not least Joanne Boag's rosy Barbarina and Timothy Robinson doubling the roles of Basilio and the stuttering Don Curzio, all make their marks.

Conductor Anthony Negus and the orchestra set a pace as varied as it is meaningful.