The current fashion for single, all-purpose sets continues to hold sway in David McVicar's new production of Manon for English National Opera.

In Tanya McCallin's design the stage becomes a segment of an amphitheatre with seats rising in three massive tiers behind; these are occupied by casual spectators, while the play-within-a-play approach is emphasised in the arena below by the blatant and impertinent attention accorded Manon and her company by the motley figures of chorus and dancers.

It works well enough in the crowd scenes, which evoke the licence and corruption of France during the Regency with powerful urgency. But a few meagre props are not enough to create the domestic ambience of the lovers' Paris apartment, while all sense of intimacy is thrown to the winds in the anonymous cavern deemed suitable for the passionate reconciliation at St. Sulpice.

Paul Daniel is one of the most talented young conductors in Britain today, and his reading of Massenet's lush score vibrates with fervent and informed commitment. The singers are no less committed, but on opening night neither Rosa Mannion nor John Hudson proved equal to the roles of Manon and Des Grieux and, despite a telling dramatic study, Ashley Holland's Lescaut was little more than a shadowy vocal presence.

There were, however, strong performances from Christopher Booth-Jones and John Connell as De Bretigny and Count des Grieux, and a cruel, foppish vignette from Anthony Mee as Guillot de Morfontaine.