If I was a girl, I'd want to be a Pipette.Furthermore, there's something inescapably contemporary about The Pipettes. Sure, they've got all the moves: there's the stop-in-the-name-of-love and the streetcorner finger-click. They've got the musical signatures: the authentic Sixties rallentandos before the chorus, an actual "Be My Baby" drumbeat and the conciseness (the longest song on the album lasts an epic three minutes and three seconds). It's she, in her Welsh accent, who says, "This is lllovely, inni?" Her glee is understandable. This is the first time The Pipettes have headlined this kind of venue, to this kind of crowd - several lookalikes (which is always a good sign), much enthusiastic overhead handclapping - and seen that, finally, the snowball is rolling.Perhaps the world has realised that there's more to these girls than mere period pastiche. A run of single releases followed, and tonight's show is the launch party for the latest one, "Pull Shapes" (accompanied by an absolutely brilliant video, re-editing Russ Meyer's cult classic Beyond The Valley of The Dolls), with their debut album, We Are The Pipettes, due out the week after next.It's a good time to be catching up with Ros?Riotbecki (the one with the knowingly nerdy specs) and new-ish member Gwenno, who has a parallel solo career as Gwenno Saunders, a Welsh Music Award winner who sings in Cymraeg and Cornish. The whole world, surely, was about to fall in love with The Pipettes. Somehow, it didn't happen.

For two frustrating years, Pipettes fans watched as they worked the circuit, playing support acts with no sign of the big breakthrough.Things started to turn around when they were picked up by commendably eclectic indie label Memphis Industries. The first time I saw the Brighton girl trio through the alcohol haze of New Year's Eve 2003, supporting British Sea Power, it wasn't entirely clear whether they were for real, or simply a bunch of mates having a laugh. On subsequent, more sober viewing, it became blindingly obvious that this was the real deal. They had the songs: joyously witty, infectiously memorable tunes in the tradition of Phil Spector, Tamla Motown and the Brill Building. They had the look: specially-made matching polka dot dresses and a backing band called The Cassettes who, in their monogrammed knitwear, could pass for frat boy extras in the Happy Days caf?Most of all, they had the charm: hand-jive moves from heaven, and audacious claims that "we're the prettiest girls you've ever met" At every gig, they slapped huge grins on everyone's faces. The Pipettes are a band whose time has arrived It's been a long time coming. With charlestons, waltzes and can-cans galore - choreographed by Jenny Weston - this production is a positive prairie oyster to those who suffered the long, dark night of the soul that was Welsh National Opera's abysmal Merry Widow.a.picard independent.co.ukFidelio (01273 813813) to 3 August; The Merry Widow (0845 841 1111) to 14 July.

Ian Caddy's entertainingly twitchy Ambassador has more than a touch of Leonard Rossiter, while Charlotte Page's pretty, pouty Valencienne is delightful. As the eponymous heiress, Rebecca Caine slips effortlessly between artful flirtation and artless candour, looking a million dollars and singing with a sweet, delicate soprano. Concert performances aside, I doubt I will hear a better sung Fidelio.Bathing beauties, young blades in tennis whites, high-kicking grisettes, tap-dancing waiters, 'Allo 'Allo accents, and Ert?vening gowns collide in Tom Hawkes's bright, breezy Art Deco production of The Merry Widow for Opera Holland Park. It is also quite exquisitely sung by Milne, Kampe, Kennedy and Sherratt, which makes this the second Glyndebourne production in one season to have raised the bar on ensemble singing to a dizzying height.