Productions of Hindemith's Cardillac since the composer's death in 1963 can probably be counted on one hand. Even the substantial revision of the score carried out in the 1950s failed to cement its place in the repertory. Now the Paris Opera is trying to rehabilitate it, and, while the new production is not a total triumph, it would be hard today to make a better case for Cardillac than this.

Hindemith composed the piece in 1926 to a libretto based upon one of ETA Hoffmann's tales. It's the story of a goldsmith in 17th-century Paris who cannot bear to be parted from the exquisite objects he makes; when he does sell something, he has to kill the buyer and so reclaim his treasure. It is part murder mystery and part meditation on the nature of artistic creativity. However, this is an uneasy mix, and the ending, when Cardillac dies in front of a crowd that forgives him for his obsessiveness, seems contrived.

André Engel's production certainly tries, going back to the original three-act version of the score (performed as a single 90-minute span) and transplanting the action to Paris in the 1920s. Nicky Rieti's designs are sumptuous, with lavish interiors and, in the last act, a spectacular roofscape where Cardillac is finally revealed as the murderer.

But the beautifully detailed sets can't disguise the flabbiness of the dramatic construction, any more than Kent Nagano's adroit conducting of the teeming score - Hindemith at his most strictly neoclassical - makes the protagonists really live. Only Cardillac is named in the cast list; the other characters are generic, such as the Daughter and the Officer (sung respectively by Angela Denoke and Christopher Ventris, both excellent). It is only Alan Held, commanding in the title role, who can put flesh on his dramatic bones. But there is nothing to believe in, dramatically or emotionally.

· In rep until October 20. Box office: 00 33 1 72 29 35 35.