Won with sheer heft

The venerable Covent Garden staging of Puccini's last opera retains most of that grandeur and spectacle which first won it a lasting place in the ROH repertory back in 1984.

Sally Jacobs's ancient China pagoda fantasy in imperial crimson and lacquer-black, with its monumental dragons, paper lanterns and unfurling scarlet banners, still looks stunning. Andrei Serban's production, here revived by Jeremy Sutcliffe, continues to convince.

That said, though the drama was thrilling, this was not a vintage evening's singing. In the title role, the American soprano Andrea Gruber belts it out with a guttural force that is undeniably exciting but offers little in the way of beauty or shading.

You'd be mad, of course, to look to the icy princess Turandot for subtlety but this inexorable clamour makes it hard to see how any man, even the selfish and love-blind Calaf, could fall for her. Nonetheless, Gruber, who has resumed her career after self-confessed problems with drug-addiction, brings a certain heft to the part that will please many. She won a warm reception.

In Vladimir Galouzine's Calaf, for sheer volume and vocal guts, she was well matched. Though Gruber was musically secure, Galouzine's booming tenor slid around the notes and his Russian consonants never quite translated into Italian.

If he was saving his energies for Nessun Dorma, so long awaited, over in a flash, he succeeded, hitting the "vincero" with matchwinning panache. Hei-Kyung Hong's bird-like Liù was touching, as was Francis Egerton's frail Emperor and Peter Rose's Timur. Ping, Pang and Pong looked rather wobbly-legged in their low-key acrobatics, which slowed things up a bit.

There was no problem in the pit. Mark Elder, conducting, paced the work steadily, allowing its stately opulence to work its magic, never yielding to excess. The ROH orchestra played expertly.

The chorus, too, moments of unkempt ensemble aside, rose to the occasion in the fortissimo choruses which make this adventurous work, left unfinished at the time of Puccini's death in 1924, so overwhelming.

Even when the ingredients aren't perfect, showbiz flair - of composer and production alike - carries the night.

In repertory until 12 February. Information: 020 7304 4000.

The Royal Opera: Turandot