TWENTY years ago you wouldn't have got me to the opera if you'd offered me free beer for a week.

So it's thanks to the lure of magnificent Malvern Theatres, the influence of the sung-throughout musicals like Les Misrables and a musically-literate girlfriend that I finally made it to a full-scale opera for the first time.

This production of Puccini's masterpiece was by an Italian company - the Compagnia d'Opera Italiano di Milano, and sung in Italian. For those worried that if they go to opera they won't understand what the heck is going on, there are surtitles - subtitles and explanations projected onto a blackboard next to the proscenium arch, and the plot is a lot easier to follow than you might think.

The Saturday night audience looked as though they knew their opera - and they loved this fresh and vigorous treatment with performers from all over the world. And how refreshing to see Oriental people played by real Oriental people, rather than Europeans with bad eye make-up.

REVIEW BY STEVE EVANS