THIS was the one they had to get right. With 26 performances this season, half before Christmas, half after, Opera North has a lot riding on its new production of Verdi’s potboiler, not least the health of its balance-sheet.

Fortunately, with Alessandro Talevi as director, this Traviata is pretty much on the money. It is not afraid to embrace some hard truths about Paris’s 19th century demi-monde. Where the opening party is often seen as a respectable affair with undercurrents, here we are presented with an in-your-face bordello, a precursor of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion. The ladies are clearly available, the gents openly lecherous.

But it is not quite a warts-and-all evening. The relationship between Violetta and Alfredo is cleverly developed. Hye-Youn Lee, making her company debut, gives us a Violetta who knows her own mind. Ji-Min Park’s Alfredo obviously does not. By the time he realises his infatuation is something more, she has moved on, distressed at his obtuseness. So his later hot-headedness is perfectly prefigured by his early naivety. Such misunderstandings are the stiff of opera.

There is nothing wrong with minimalist designs, even if they result from budgetary restraints. Madeleine Boyd seems to know this. There is little opulence in her party scenes – she leaves that to the costumes – and the same central podium from which Violetta and Flora Bervoix direct their parties becomes Violetta’s death-bed. And Flora’s spoof on Carmen brings some light relief, matador and all.

Life’s great lottery is admirably crystallized in a vast roulette wheel back-cloth, seen both when Alfredo is gambling in Paris and at Violetta’s demise. Less appetizing are the pseudo-medical films during the preludes to Acts 1 and 3, hinting at the onset and course of TB. At worst, they are a distraction from some beautiful playing; audiences do not need such babying.

Lee’s is a musical Violetta. She is capable of some stunning coloratura along with oceans of tone when needed, but also finds a bewitching sotto voce during her plea to Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s dad. She and Park radiate a useful electricity: it cannot hurt that both hail from South Korea. He found his vocal focus more quickly than she did, and boasted great accuracy at the top of his range.

Roland Wood’s Giorgio was a revelation, a British bass of genuine substance and clarity. He managed well the transition from starchy parent to fond potential father-in-law. Gianluca Marcianò conducts as to the manner born, allowing the orchestra enough head, but not too much. New principals and conductor take over in 2015. But for now, this show will do very nicely, thank you.