If a single aria sung with poignant sensitivity and considerable skill is enough to satisfy lovers of opera, then the Chisinau National Opera and Ellen Kent presentation of Toscawill do just that, writes Mary Leland.

But if the audience is greedy, or even moderately knowledgable, then Natalia Margarit's rendering of Vissi d'arte won't rescue this dutiful but pedestrian - and at times downright careless - production.

There's no question but that everyone on stage and in the orchestra, conducted by Nicolae Dohotaru, works very hard, but it's a case of opera by numbers. All the right positions in all the right places, but no overall idea of what's going on, or what must be attained. Or so it appears from the front. La Tosca's wig is a different colour to her hair, which may be why she keeps patting her coiffure even at moments of high drama (and Puccini provides some very elevated moments), and she is given a gown which constantly trips her.

Even when dealing with this, however, it is all too obvious she could tuck the villain Scarpia under her arm anytime she wanted to change the plot. She murders Scarpia (sung with intensity by Vladimir Dragos), but he proceeds to arise before the curtain comes down. A bunch of anachronistic altar-girls accompany a file of nuns whose wimples were never straightened, while on a set lavish with angels and votive candles, the portrait of the Magdalene is obviously that of the Madonna - a permitted variation but one with some implications for Tosca's impassioned behaviour.

These are all visual elements that need not interfere with one's enjoyment if the singing met expectations; here all the voices are right, well-trained and efficiently projected, but with a few exceptions (Scarpia among them) over-stretched to the point of stridency.

Puccini's music is vivid and his mixture of love, lust and political turmoil, with Napoleon on the march to Rome, allows few lyrical moments, which is just as well as no-one here is up to lyricism; even the string section of the orchestra wavers from time to time.

And everything is betrayed by Tosca's final moment: instead of that great defiant leap from the battlements, she takes a careful step downwards. However, given the continued suggestion of unreadiness throughout this production, who could blame her caution?

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