Jenufa can seem an opera misnamed. Is the kind-hearted girl of the title really the most interesting character? Surely, most productions shout, there is far more fascination in her stepmother, the Kostelnicka, who murders her newborn illegitimate grandchild to save her daughter from disgrace at the price, she believes, of her own salvation. And yet, even with such a seasoned scene-stealer as the US soprano Catherine Malfitano in the latter role, ENO's new Jenufa, which proceeds a little slowly but smoothly under the young Russian conductor Mikhail Agrest, definitely has the right title.

If that is the most striking achievement of David Alden's production, new to ENO but first seen in Houston two years ago, it is enough to make it work - and it's largely down to a superb performance from soprano Amanda Roocroft. Radiantly sung, her Jenufa is no prissy paragon, but someone who matures before our eyes.

Malfitano's performance - her first at ENO - is typically highly coloured, though some of her words in the slightly clunky English translation are lost. In the second and third acts, with no props and her room a drab space empty apart from a couple of flimsy chairs, there is nothing for her to do with her hands except wring them - which she does with enthusiasm. But she keeps the intensity high.

Charles Edwards's sets, which place the action in recent eastern Europe, are surprisingly spartan considering it has two US opera houses helping to foot the bill. But the first act, outside a run-down mill with fluorescent light flickering through the doorway, establishes exactly who these characters are, from Iain Paterson's disproportionately memorable Foreman, to Stuart Skelton's edgy Laca, and Paul Charles Clarke's leather-suited Steva. For once, this is an opera cast that seems full of actors.

· In rep until October 28. Box office: 0870 145 0200.