If any company has earned “the right to fail” it’s Music Theatre Wales, which has toured many bold productions with success. But fail it does with Eleanor Alberga’s new opera. Two hours of music add nothing, dramatically or psychologically, to the Isabel Allende short story on which Donald Sturrock’s libretto is based. On the contrary; the score dulls an enchanting tale and turns richly drawn characters and vividly evoked landscapes into tokens. Quite a feat.

For the latter crime Michael McCarthy’s direction and Colin Richmond’s designs must also bear responsibility. I’ve seen some misconceived sets in my time, but taking a story so rooted in the farms of the Andean foothills and staging it in a grey bunker must win an award for perversity.

It’s to claim her inheritance, this farmland, that the convent orphan Analia weds her loutish cousin: a decision based on a misunderstanding of the charming love letters she has received. But stripped of visual references to the stultifying social context and sense of isolation in Allende’s story, that plot seems unbelievable.

At least Alberga adds South American elements to her music. But these cheery dances and quasi-folksongs don’t fit in a score that is otherwise aridly atonal. It’s a bit like coming across songs from Fiddler on the Roof in the middle of Wozzeck. Nor is Alberga’s restless style suited to the lyrical monologues that Analia needs.

That’s a pity, because Mary Plazas is excellent as the dreamy girl with the inner strength to seize back her life and land in a macho society. As her opposite — Gloria, the prostitute who wryly accepts that her fate is to comfort boorish men — Arlene Rolph is expressive. Fine performances also come from Christopher Steele as the dreadful cousin, Jonathan May as his father, Paul Keohone as a boozy redneck, and Richard Edgar-Wilson — given the impossible task of making an impact as Analia’s saviour in the opera’s last five minutes. Michael Rafferty conducts well. But the “so what?” feeling never goes.

Box office: 020-7304 4000, tonight only, then touring: musictheatrewales.org.uk

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