Scott Cantrell

Adorable, enchanting, touching and sometimes uproariously funny: That's the Dallas Opera's Merry Widow, which opened Friday evening at Fair Park Music Hall. One of the best things the company has done in recent memory, it'll leave you smiling and chuckling and humming Franz Lehár's unforgettable tunes.

Visually, it's a stunner, with sumptuous art nouveau sets designed by Michael Yeargan and lavish turn-of-the-20th-century costumes by Thierry Bosquet. The first act is all in black, white and gray, the second is centered on blue, the third is ablaze in red and black.

Lotfi Mansouri's production, based on Christopher Hassall's delightful English doggerel translation, has been reworked, brilliantly, by Candace Evans. There's plenty of action, but it all means something. Even the slighter characters – too many to name and adequately praise here – are boldly drawn. Even the dancing, often an afterthought in operatic productions, is pretty exciting, in choreography by Peggy Hickey.

And what a cast!

Some of the most glorious singing in recent Dallas Opera seasons has come from Ruth Ann Swenson, and she's back as an irresistible – and deliciously complex – Anna Glawari. (This production favors that alternate spelling to the more usual Hanna.)

She's merry and playful, but little by little we see her jolly exterior, and her bits of sarcasm, as defenses against long-lost love. Her big tunes could use a little more mobility and a little less sentimentality, but her singing is resplendent.

Rod Gilfry, as Count Danilovitch, is similarly dead-on as a stuffed shirt who gradually loses starch to rising humidity from that never really lost love. And his warm baritone yields considerable variety of color and texture.

For all that, Andrew Shore nearly steals the show as a sonorous Baron Zeta at once pompous and ridiculous. The mostly speaking role of Njegus is brilliantly and wittily realized by Jason Graae.

Stephen Costello brings a stirring Italianate tenor to the role of Camille de Rosillon, but his high notes need some variety from all the belting and his rhythms a little more care. Nathalie Paulin is a pleasant Valencienne, but her soprano isn't quite big enough. Scott Scully and Michael Kimmons push the camp envelope as St. Brioche and Cascada, but they're certainly entertaining.

The chorus, prepared by Alexander Rom, sounds fabulous and does some pretty nimble footwork of its own. Music director Graeme Jenkins whips up yummy froth from the orchestra.

• Repeats at 2 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Dec. 8 at Fair Park Music Hall. $15 to $199. 214-443-1000, www.dallasopera.org.

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