Nearly seven years after the Olivia Fuchs production of Dvorak’s fairy tale was first seen in Leeds, it is surprising to find as many as six of the original ten principals returning for its revival. But it was a highly successful show: perhaps if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

Nevertheless there are enough subtle changes to make it well worth revisiting. First, of course, you have to get over the “update”. Rusalka’s excursion to the real world is all too real. The witch Jezibaba turns out to be a scalpel-happy surgeon (a sardonically insistent Anne-Marie Owens), who is only too happy to turn Rusalka’s mermaid sheath into human legs. The wood nymphs are her surgical aides.

All this takes place within the winter wonderland of Niki Turner’s set, where transparent ice-cubes are centred on a small pool, providing refuge for coy nymphs and Richard Angas’s melancholy Water Sprite.

Even when the pool survives into the royal palace of what becomes a Ruritanian ice-kingdom, it seems to belong. Here courtiers are clad in scarlet, Cossack-style greatcoats, a fearsome threat to the sensitive Rusalka.

Giselle Allen returns triumphantly to the title role that was the making of her in 2003. Looking slimmer than ever, hence more virginal, she transformed herself from teenage moon-worshipper to disenchanted woman magically, tender-toned in love, full-throated at the climaxes. She is overdue for a return to something new in Leeds.

Richard Berkeley-Steele as her new prince, though billed as heldentenor, is surprisingly lyrical, even persuasive, in a role that easily turns into vacillating wimp.

In the end, his pain is as real as hers, and he wisely avoids the temptation to overblow when the orchestration flares.

Susannah Glanville, dressed in blazing red, is again an icy Foreign Princess, though this time with a touch of humanity. Hers, too, is a voice we need to hear here again soon.

Mark Le Brocq’s jovial huntsman/gamekeeper and Catherine Hopper’s sprightly kitchen boy dab in nice touches of humour.

The wood nymphs, Natasha Jouhl, Kim-Marie Woodhouse and Alexandra Sherman – Dvorak’s Three Little Maids – gambol as prettily as before.

The new conductor, though not new to the company, is Oliver von Dohnanyi. He has a sure feel for the score’s rolling phrases, although inclined to let the more Wagnerian moments go slightly over the top.

Still, his greatest achievement is to make a clear distinction between spirit and human worlds, the latter more hard-edged, the former more impressionistic. His players take close array. The chorus make the most of their limited opportunities, dancing gracefully. A production to savour.

• Further performances in Leeds on June 5, 9 & 11, then on tour. Box office (0844) 848-2720.