A superb new production of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova is electrifying audiences at the London Coliseum. Director David Alden, whose 2006 Jenufa for English National Opera (revived last year) won two Olivier Awards, shows us all the pathos – and pluck – of the heroine of a later, even greater, opera from the Czech composer whose genius in this work was first revealed to British audiences by ENO’s forerunner, Sadler’s Wells Opera, 59 years ago.

Katya is an unlikely heroine, it has to be said, given that she is both a disloyal wife who cheats on a loyal, if ineffectual, husband and ultimately a suicide. Her redeeming feature for Janacek – and as a result for us – lies in her eager romantic spirit and her lust for happiness, in the pursuit of which she stands out as a lone independent spirit in the shackled society of rural Russia. Her character is beautifully expressed in the music supplied for the role, with long yearning passages lushly scored that contrast starkly with the spartan vocal lines given to some of the other characters – most notably to Katya’s odious mother-in-law, Kabanicha. These are sensually and heart-rendingly interpreted by the American soprano Patricia Racette, in a stunning debut with ENO.

One sees little, as ever, to inspire these outpourings of passion in the character of Katya’s lover Boris (Stuart Skelton). Surely a woman of her stamp would find more happiness sinning with the opera’s other tenor, the happy-go-lucky schoolteacher Vanya. He is winningly presented here in all his charm – singing folk songs, gaily dancing – by Woodstock-based Alfie Boe. But then, of course, Vanya already has his arms full with the coquettish Varvara (Anna Grevelius – pictured right with Boe).

The opera’s two true bad-hats are both brilliantly portrayed. Clive Bayley, as Boris’s bullying uncle Dikoy, presents a blustering sadist with more than a steak of masochism to his make-up. This is well catered for in the lashings he receives – verbal and, one suspects, physical too – from Kabanicha (Susan Bickley), a terrifying combination of Queen Mary and Bette Davis in one of her haughtiest roles.

The thrills of the music (conductor Mark Wigglesworth) are matched in the staging. Charles Edward’s designs of huge dark walls at skewed angles are lit with enormous skill by Adam Silverman, to especially startling effect when the singers perform in their own huge shadows.

London Coliseum, until March 27. Tel: 0871 911 0200 (www.eno.org).