For a tightly-written opera performed with not a single wasted stage direction, Janacek’s Jenufa in WNO’s current version takes some beating.

In this second revival of Katie Mitchell’s much-praised original of 1998, there are some cast changes which maintain the tension and heighten the drama.

Sian Edwards is also a newcomer in the pit, sharing baton duties on tour with staffman Anthony Negus and on the first night shifting quickly into gear.

Company favourite Nuccia Focile sings the title role in this unrelenting tale of pride, dishonour, prejudice and infanticide, bringing to the character her familiar mixture of strength and vulnerability.

But the opera, as Janacek indicated, is really about the powerful and slightly imperious Kostelnicka, the woman forced to murder her stepdaughter’s child in order to engineer a marriage that avoids shame, stigma and persecution.

In this role, Susan Bickley stands supreme, helping Newport-born Stephen Rooke (Steva), Peter Hoare (Laca) and Susan Gorton (the Grandmother) to define their relationships in a family brought down by incestuous union.

Originated in WNO’s old home at the New Theatre and like others premiered at its new one, this production seems unduly compressed in the WMC’s cavernous onstage space.

But the company has to tour to small venues so cannot set out being too grand and expansive. In any case, this Jenufa benefits from the stifling atmosphere created by boxing everyone in cinematically on a set whose bloodlessness is ironic in view of the passions aroused.

The orchestral colours remain defiantly lurid but Mitchell’s postscript – the glimpse of a happier future – is touching and a relief.