Johann Strauss II is reputed to have written Die Fledermaus to take Viennese minds off a financial crisis in the mid-1870s. Therefore, Budget Day 2011 was an ideal day to see Welsh National Opera’s new production of the old warhorse, and discover whether it still works its magic in times of financial gloom. In the past, WNO productions at the lighter end of the repertoire have tended to be somewhat ponderous affairs. There has been an air of a grand old duchess unable to loosen her corsets, a feeling that the froth on offer isn’t worthy of the company’s attention.

That is absolutely not the case here. Hugely experienced director John Copley has exploited every possible comic opportunity to the full — not least the nice irony that one of Strauss’s aims in Fledermaus is to send up heavyweight opera, and its singers. For instance, Copley has incorporated references to famous tenors who hunt in packs of three, and to the moustachioed tenor who currently adorns the Go Compare TV adverts: “He sings with this lot, you know,” says Desmond Barrit in a cheeky reference to Go Compare’s Wynne Evans, who has been associated with WNO for 15 years. Actor Barrit is an excellent choice as comic turn Frosch, the drunken gaoler who enlivens Fledermaus’s sometimes turgid third act.

Meanwhile Viennese conductor Thomas Rösner gets the WNO orchestra well into the lilt of Strauss’s score, and there is a strong team in the principal roles. Nuccia Focile may occasionally be a touch strained vocally, but she vividly characterises Rosalinde — you suspect that this Rosalinde was an Italian diva in a former life: “When I ’ave feenished with ’im, he vill weesh to go to prison for the rest of hees life,” she snaps, as if dealing with a wayward conductor.

Joanne Boag sparkles as Adele, the parlour maid who is determined to go the ball, while Mark Stone and Paul Charles Clarke interact most effectively as Rosalinde’s husband Eisenstein and her lover Alfred respectively. There’s excellent work, too, from David Stout as Eisenstein’s friend Falke, and from Alan Opie as a splendidly pompous prison governor.

The all-singing, all-waltzing WNO chorus comes into its own in the grand ball scenes, as do set and costume designers Tim Reed and Deirdre Clancy. OK, the sets are art nouveaux and the frocks come from an earlier era, but who cares when the overall effect is so colourful and joyous? Given in English, this Fledermaus is indeed an antidote to Budget glooms.

Die Fledermaus is at Milton Keynes Theatre on April 13 and 15, with Verdi’s Il Trovatore alternating on April 14 and 16. For tickets telephone 0844 871 7652 or go to www.ambassadortickets.com/miltonkeynes