Scottish Opera's revival of its 1999 production of Aida is timely, and comes as a welcome antidote to the emotional paralysis of the Royal Opera's recent effort. Instead of the unfeeling automata created by Robert Wilson at Covent Garden, Antony McDonald peoples his staging with real human beings, who in the final scenes play out their personal tragedies within a credible web of relationships.

It takes a while, though, for McDonald (who is both director and designer) to achieve that careful balance between the public and the private that is at the heart of Verdi's drama. The ceremonials of the first two acts are swamped with symbolism and historical references, as the production strives a bit too hard to squeeze every hint of contemporary resonance out of the archaic setting. There is a front cloth with a pyramid to fix the geography, but then Aida appears in a French maid's outfit and Amneris in a sumptuous purple gown, while the priests turn up looking like Star Trek extras. With old newsreel footage of desert warfare behind it, the triumphal march brings a parade of military models - tanks, jet fighters, helicopter gunships - as well as a rash of flags whose crescent and stars have an unmistakable Islamic connotation.

Whether some of that has been newly added for this revival is hard to tell, but in the third act, when the opera's emotional vice begins to tighten, all the frippery drops away. The singers, and the orchestral score as Richard Armstrong so unerringly paces it, take over. There is John Hudson's ardent and sympathetic Radames, Anne-Marie Owens' haughty Amneris and especially the Aida of Inessa Galante, the Latvian soprano making her UK stage debut. Here she shows that the admirable intensity and range of colour on her recordings is no studio artefact. She is a thrilling dramatic soprano and the best reason for catching this production, though by no means the only one.

· In rep until January 24. Box office: 0141-332 9000. Then touring.