"There are three participants: Bluebeard, Judith and the castle," wrote Bela Balazs, author of the verse drama on which Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Bartok's only opera, is based. Visualising the castle as both a physical setting and as a living entity that reflects the embattled psyches of the protagonists is a nightmare for directors - so much so that some have dispensed with it completely and fallen back on abstraction.

Some musicians, meanwhile, have argued that the piece works best away from the theatre altogether, and Giles Havergal's new production for Opera North - now itinerant while its base, the Leeds Grand, is being refurbished - bravely attempts to actualise the opera in a concert hall rather than on stage. Havergal allows Bluebeard and Judith (John Tomlinson and Sally Burgess) to play out their horrific marital endgame among the orchestral players entrusted with the task of creating the castle's musical presence. The plutocratic late-Victorian decor of Leeds Town Hall, illuminated by the flickering lights of music stands, adds immeasurably to the oppressive atmosphere of it all.

Havergal refuses to let Tomlinson and Burgess lapse into stylised, ritual gestures. Their acting is frighteningly naturalistic, and the late-19th-century costumes pull us away from symbolist theatre, towards the world of Ibsen or Strindberg. The singing is occasionally less than beautiful, but beauty has no place in such a nightmare. Around them the score, wonderfully conducted by Richard Farnes, heaves with an almost physical menace.

There are minor flaws: a video screen with shadowy projections of the castle's rooms seems unnecessary; Havergal suggests that the action is essentially a projection of Bluebeard's fantasy, which is true to Balasz's play, though not to Bartok's score, which gives Judith's obsessions equal empathy. Whether it will work in some of its other planned venues is also questionable - but it's powerful stuff and you need to hear it.

· At Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (0161 907 9000), on Wednesday. Then touring until June 11.