Gaetano Donizetti’s comedy “The Elixir of Love” is about as filmy and frothy a creation as the operatic repertoire has to offer. It’s a piece based on broad jokes, pretty melodies and a bit of romance.

When any of those elements miss their marks, “Elixir” can become a trial. But line up everything just so, as the ebullient and imaginative new production at the San Francisco Opera does, and the result is nearly three hours’ worth of tuneful, spangly pleasure.

The opening performance at the War Memorial Opera House on Sunday, Nov. 19, went down as smoothly as anyone could ask. It boasted a strong cast led by the always irresistible tenor Pene Pati and an impressive new soprano, Slávka Zámecníková, making her U.S. debut. In director Daniel Slater’s buoyant staging, the piece was full of jests and byplay that kept the audience amused.

Did it linger in the memory once the curtain went down? It did not. “Elixir,” in my experience, rarely does. It’s too thin, either musically or dramatically, to make much of a dent in an audience’s consciousness.

What “Elixir” boasts in abundance, though, is puppyish charm, and that was the quality that gave this production its zing. The score bounced along in all its vivacious energy and occasional expressive radiance, led by debuting conductor Ramón Tebar, and the cast, together with John Keene’s Opera Chorus, gave everything a polished sheen.

Polish was particularly appropriate for Slater’s delightful production, which transposes the opera’s action from a rustic 19th century Italian village to a seaside resort in the 1950s. Adina, originally the local landowner, is now the proprietor of this hotel on the Italian Riviera, which she has named Hotel Adina. The laborer Nemorino, still a lovable bumpkin, has been recast as a waiter.

If nothing else, this instantly heightens the audience’s intuitive understanding of the largely forgotten concept of loving above one’s station. Imagine that: Nemorino wants to marry the boss.

But Slater has more up his sleeve than just a time shift. Nemorino’s romantic rival Sgt. Belcore and his troops roll in off the sea in their crisp navy whites, straddling a string of noisy motorbikes.

The traveling mountebank Dulcamara, who pawns off a bottle of cheap Bordeaux as the love potion of the title, arrives and departs in a hot-air balloon, conjuring up just the right resonances of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Production designer Robert Innes Hopkins makes everything shimmer in an array of neon colors (Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” is an inspiration, and the stage imagery is what you imagine that film would look like if it hadn’t been shot in black and white). Simon Mills’ virtuosic lighting summons up both the sun-broiled afternoon and the slightly eerie palette of the Mediterranean evening.

And there are laughs aplenty from beginning to end. At seemingly every juncture, Slater throws in a piece of physical business to keep the action afloat. My favorite was Belcore’s backward kick to close up the compartment of his scooter, but everyone will find their own.

Pati’s combination of vocal elegance and unbridled charisma is a well-established feature of his appearances here, and his Nemorino was no exception. When he is mobbed by the local women in Act 2, they sing, “He is really adorable,” channeling the feelings of every member of the audience.

Even walking with visible difficulty as he recovers from a recent foot injury, Pati romped through the matter of being both ingratiating and a lunkhead with nimble skill. As he launched into the famous showpiece “Una furtiva lagrima” near the end of the opera, an intrusive noise filled the hall, causing Tebar to call a temporary halt; when the music resumed, Pati sang with unfailing lyricism and power. (The noise, according to a company spokesperson, came from a patron’s personal emergency alarm.)

Zámecníková, a Slovakian artist whose career has been spent mainly in Germany and Austria, gave a masterful performance as Adina, lofting crystalline peals of melody and capturing the character’s blend of supercilious tenderness.

The remaining principal roles were capably handled by other singers making their company debuts. French baritone David Bizic gave Belcore an air of preening self-regard that came through in his buffed vocalism, and Dulcamara was skillfully embodied in all his outrageous chicanery by Italian baritone Renato Girolami. Soprano Arianna Rodriguez, an Adler fellow with the company, provided a couple of dexterous turns as Adina’s sidekick, Giannetta.

Those of us who get impatient with “Elixir,” it should be noted, are a minority. There are plenty of Donizetti-heads eager to argue for the depth and artistic resourcefulness of the score.

Happily for everyone, it’s not an argument that needs to be settled particularly urgently. Even skeptics can embrace the piece when it’s pulled off this well.

Reach Joshua Kosman: jkosman@sfchronicle.com