Janacek's Jenufa may not be such obvious box-office gold as Tosca, the other work in English Touring Opera's spring season, but it does lend itself to the kind of sparing set that you can fit into the back of a single truck - and it is a masterpiece.

This new production by ETO boss James Conway has much on its side, but a lack of imagination weighs it down. Conway has taken the sparseness too far: he has tried for a straightforward, naturalistic staging, but too often leaves his characters emoting into thin air in front of Michael Vale's penny-plain sets. It's hard to believe that someone as averse to idleness as the Kostelnicka - Jenufa's terrifying yet self-sacrificing stepmother, a complex role if ever there was one - would sit around at home with nothing to do except scold. This lack of purpose and focus was the one real weakness in an otherwise revealing performance from mezzo Anne Mason, who on this showing has a voice of greater range and heft than most casting directors realise.

Indeed, the difficulty in touring this opera would usually have been in casting it; here, at least, ETO has done well. The soprano Amanda Echalaz is a touch Amazonian to catch the vulnerable side of Jenufa, but the character's inner strength and goodness are convincingly portrayed, and there is a gleam to her singing. As Laca, the half-brother of her irresponsible lover, the Australian tenor Dwayne Jones is a find. His burly voice rarely sounds pushed, and takes on a real poignancy in his sudden moments of tenderness. The faithless Steva is aptly slippery as sung by Richard Roberts.

Under Michael Rosewell, the score, one of Janacek's most melodious, comes across with lyrical feeling, if not all its potential luminosity; the story, in an English translation by Otakar Kraus and Edward Downes, is clearly told. But it should leave you devastated - and it doesn't.

· At the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, on March 22 and 24. Box office: 01223 503333. Then touring.