The Gondoliers is musically, verbally and visually among the most spectacular of Gilbert and Sullivan’s timeless collaborations, but they surely don’t get much more spectacular than this lavish Carl Rosa production.

Stunning sets, wonderful costumes and a richly talented cast and orchestra ensured a sparkling evening of sheer delight and laughter of a captivated Theatre Royal audience.

Those who so regularly profess to dislike G&S – usually adding in the next breath that they have never actually seen one – really should check this out if they fancy a quick trip down the road to Damascus.

Patterson merchant Simon Butteriss threatens to steal the show as the hilariously impoverished, henpecked and twinkled-toed Duke of Plaza-Toro but is not entirely allowed to do so by fellow members of a strong team.

Marco (Nick Sales) and Giuseppe (Riccardo Simonetti) make a dashing pair of gondoliers and it is easy to see why they cheated to choose Gianetta (Lesley Cox) and Tessa (Maria Jones) as their intended brides.

The Grand Inquisitor – doing his best to keep tabs on the farcical tale of a Spanish prince married in infancy before being stolen and taken to Venice to grow up as a gondolier’s son – is played with threatening aplomb by veteran Savoyard Bruce Graham.

The Duchess (Nuala Willis) rules her hapless husband with a rod of iron while her daughter Casilda is beautifully played by promising newcomer Maeve Morris.

The Gondoliers runs until Saturday night. Don’t miss it.

Art thou troubled? Then G&S will calm thee. The passage of time had smoothed the edge of most of the political satire, if by no means all, just as it has muted the echoes of the musical parodies that run through the s core. But this Carl Rosa performance comes up as fresh as paint.

Though the production is traditional in spirit, director Jamie Hayes finds enough innovation to add spice to old jokes and familiar situations. The “Grand Inquisition” (Bruce Graham) transforms settings which are filled with a cast in costumes that are always imaginative and usually very decorative too.

A sprightly soprano, a lively mezzo with reserves of power, an ardent tenor in sparkling

Daniel Hoadley as Luiz makes the best of his perhaps unduly slender part, while Simon Butteriss, small in stature, suits lively action to clearly projected words, always the centre of attention when he wants to be, as is the way with dukes. Nuala Willis has fine stage presence too.

Energetic in perpetual motion, the chorus brings out situations with full tone and energetic attack. Under Richard Balcombe, the orchestra has power and colour, the capacity to bring out moments of grandeur as well as to convey a sense of romance and the equally important ability to pipe down, so that the singers can be hard clearly.

With the D’Oyly Carte now effectively London-based and the regional opera companies sniffily uninterested, the revamped Carl Rosa Opera Company has been left to carry the torch for Gilbert and Sullivan around the country. It’s a job they are doing well – without subsidy – and their reward is large and enthusiastic audiences who come back for more.

Their new production of The Gondoliers has much to recommend it. The designs are rather gorgeous – a meticulously painted backcloth, in the style of Canaletto, for the Venice of Act 1; a sumptuous interior for the palace of Barataria in Act 2; several extra, totally gratuitous scene changes; and two elaborate late-Victorian costumes for every member of the case. It makes for quite an eyeful.

Jamie Haye’s staging is crisply executed and devoid of silly tricks; a few small additions and substitutions to the text won’t offend even the most puritanical of Savoyards.

I only wish I could be more enthusiastic about individual performances. They’re not all bad. Seasoned old pros such as Simon Butteriss (the Duke of Plaza-Toro) and Bruce Graham (Don Alhambra) are at least masters of Gilbertian delivery. Nuala Willis looked every inch the monstre sacré as the Duchess of Plaza-Toro, and there’s a handsome, warmly sung Luiz from Daniel Hoadley.

But, with so many fine young singers twiddling their thumbs or taking shelf-filler jobs for want of gainful musical employment, surely the casting could be stronger? Riccardo Simonetti and Nick Sales lacked any dash as Giuseppe and Marco, with Sales’s Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes providing a bumpy ride through what should be the most graceful of legatos.