THIS production by Will Todd of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is staged in a woodland setting at the National Trust’s Dyffryn Gardens.

The Welsh National Opera makes a triumphant return to the stage with a bravura performance of the children’s story which has Fflur Wyn as a beguiling Alice rushing into a pet shop with her family for shelter from the rain.

A white rabbit starts talking to her and the most surreal of adventures begins, spread across the beautiful gardens and the early evening bucolic setting includes the local birdlife joining in as a perfectly judged chorus.

The orchestra and the audience, the latter urged on by the chorus, decamp through bushes and trees to follow the story and watch the action on four imaginatively designed stages.

Todd’s score — a mixture of jazz, music theatre and opera — is performed by a 12-strong orchestra and runs through some of the famous scenes from the story.

This glorious production of Lewis Carroll's fantastical tale has some performers double-cast, with Adam Gilbert notable as Alice’s father and a very bloodthirsty Queen of Hearts.

In a laugh-out-loud scene, instead of chopping off their heads the Queen makes the characters toil in her jam tart factory.

This is a welcome return to live music and, subject to the vagaries of the Welsh weather, opera in the open air.

Runs until July 3, box office: wno.org.uk