Like the swallow of the title, Puccini’s heroine Magda is a free spirit, wheeling unfettered through society. But unlike the swallow, her past is cloudy, and this hovers over her love affair with the dashing Ruggero.

La Rondine has elements of both his earlier opera La Bohème and of Verdi’s La Traviata and performances by Opera Holland Park in a new production directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans, marks 100 years since its premiere – not in Puccini’s native Italy, but in Monte Carlo. Despite the first world war background to the work’s composition, La Rondine has surprisingly jaunty elements, not least the rhythms of the fashionable new tango.

In the title role, as Magda, is the British soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, who made a big impression as Mimi in La Bohème at English National Opera in 2010, and who went on to sing two important Mozart roles for Opera Holland Park, the Countess in its Le Nozze di Figaro (2011) and Fiordiligi in Così Fan Tutte (2012).

The Armenian soprano Tereza Gevorgyan makes her OHP debut as Magda's influential maid, Lisette, and the baritone David Stephenson, who played Sharpless in OHP’s 2013 production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, returns for more Puccini as Rambaldo, whose protection Magda leaves, besotted with Ruggero.

The designer of the 2016 OHP Die Fledermaus, takis, creates the look for the Parisian and French Riviera sets for the opera, and Matthew Waldren, from English National Opera's music team, conducts the City of London Sinfonia and Opera Holland Park Chorus. That chorus, which always adds so much to its productions, will be as busy as ever as the fashionable throngs of the capital and resort.

Partying and heartbreak in equal measure are guaranteed.

La Rondine is sung in Italian, with English surtitles.

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Public booking for La Rondine opens at 10am on 30 January. Booking in person opens at 1pm on 1 May. A limited number of "Inspire" tickets at £18 are on sale from 10am on 11 April. Click here for information about Friends and Supporters schemes that offer priority booking.