WNO have lost some momentum with Maria Stuarda, the second of a trio of Tudor operas by Donizetti being presented as the highlight of the company's Autumn season.

The singing, especially choral, is as vivid and as sharp as it was in the first of the three, Anna Bolena, presented a week before.

But the set is dull and Rudolf Frey's production often cluttered, sometimes laughably choreographed and prone to silly histrionics and anachronisms.

Designer Madeleine Boyd, who is in charge of all three operas (Roberto Devereux follows), has used many of the first opera’s eccentric costumes and its revolving stage for Maria Stuarda and employs a central wood-and-glass box to serve as Maria's prison cell, Elisabetta's state room, and the scaffold on which Maria is finally beheaded. It's as though the rules for the first opera have been imposed on the second, with far less happy results.

The impression is one of enforced economy and under-usage of the commodious WMC stage. The final crowded walk to the chopping-block, with Maria in a sexy leather corsage straight out of Boudicca's wardrobe, is embarrassing.

There's obviously a justification for continuity of appearance, but the arias and set pieces plead for some sort of material context when the surroundings fall short.

There's a big voice to contend with in Adina Nitescu's Elisabetta and a more nuanced one in Judith Howarth's Maria, especially in the scorching, pre-chop denunciation of her rival. American tenor Bruce Sledge as Roberto yearns impressively to have his divided loyalties reconciled, while Alastair Miles (Giorgio) and Gary Griffiths (Guglielmo) act well their troubled politicking. Rebecca Afonwy-Jones is affecting as Maria's companion Anna.

Conductor Graeme Jenkins maintains a measured pace and weds voices to orchestra pretty well, defining the big moments with care and control. He's especially good at dealing with the elasticity needed to keep the dramatic moments tight while releasing the hold as those seemingly never-ending moments of bel canto flow from the stage. Apart from the loose paraphrase of defining moments in British history, that's what these operas are basically all about.