Place Ravel and Puccini together in the theatre and, if the works are L'Heure Espagnole and Gianni Schicchi, Puccini will win.

Since these two operas are seldom partnered, the matter is, perhaps, academic. But even in a captivatingly unacademic double-bill by the RSAMD's excellent opera class, it poses interesting questions. As the opening night demonstrated, what Ravel possesses in terms of musical finesse overrides neither Puccini's perfection of operatic timing nor his seldom exploited flair for comedy.

In performances so perceptively conducted by Timothy Dean, the point was conspicuously made. The Ravel, for all the resourcefulness of Martin Lloyd-Evans's production, might have seemed just as ravishing in a concert hall. The Puccini, written by a real man of the theatre, demanded a theatrical atmosphere in which to blossom. And blossom it did in a true ensemble performance, characterised by the international cast led by Rhys Jenkins in a vivid, refreshingly unexaggerated portrayal of Schicchi, with Bylgja Dis Gunnarsdottir as his lissom daughter. If the action of the Ravel seemed, in comparison, to have been devised by the ministry of funny walks, there was ample compensation in the wit and colour of the instrumental playing.

What unified the evening was Bridget Kiman's decor, a clever revolve dominated by doors, clocks and a pendulum that swung its way through the musical chronochromie of Ravel's comedy but stopped at the right moment in the Puccini. Here, again, Dean's conducting of the Scottish Opera and RSAMD orchestras was richly evocative. To be repeated in Edinburgh on Thursday and Saturday.