Watching Hansel and Gretel amid the Victorian splendour of Leeds Town Hall is like seeing the whole opera from inside the witch's house. The pipes of the organ look so much as if they have been carved out of marzipan you expect one of the children to climb up and bite a chunk out of them. But Opera North's new version of Engelbert Humper-dinck's opera, a staged concert performance directed by John Fulljames and designed by Soutra Gilmour, is determined to give it another, more contemporary resonance. Musical instrument cases are an important element in a production that is played around and about the orchestra, but the main reference is far more specific.

Instead of the dirndl children from Grimms' fairy tale, Julianne Young and Jeni Bern's Hansel and Gretel are teenagers with hoodies and trainers, a few casual acts of delinquency away from an Asbo. Their idea of a great meal is a mountain of junk food, with burgers the size of a garden shed and shakes by the bucketful, served to them during the opera's gorgeous dream pantomime by "angels" in red baseball caps and yellow shirts. And just to make sure that no one misses the reference, when Peter Hoare's strongly sung witch finally appears, it's as a white-faced clown with ginger hair, a yellow suit, and oversized boots.

It is unclear whether this is just a neat conceit or a more profound point about the iniquities of fast food. But the effect does undermine one of the most gorgeous epiphanies in 19th-century opera, and consequently weakens the whole dramatic structure of the piece. There are compensations, though. With the orchestra on the stage it's a real treat to hear so much of Humperdinck's sumptuously Wagnerian scoring, and Richard Farnes paces the score with real affection. Sarah Pring takes the unforgiving role of the mother, Christopher Purves is a strong-toned father, while Rebecca Bottone makes the most of her moments as both the Sandman and Dew Fairy.

· Performances on January 18 and 22 (box office: 0113-224 3801), then touring Theatre