FROM the opening bars Tim Albery's new production for Opera North of Verdi's Macbeth, it was apparent that this was to be a grey evening - apart, that is, from several buckets of stage blood.

The opera version of Shakespeare's Scottish play is acted out against Johan Engels' minimal, overwhelmingly grey, but effective, sets, with the three witches cleverly suspended on a grey mountain side, a bed, a hospital screen and a few chairs doubling as thrones.

The rest of the coven appear variously as nurses and cleaning ladies in a somewhat Satanic maternity unit, either aiding or sabotaging the action and flinging babies from one to another before popping on tiny crowns.

Vocally, Antonia Cifrone needs to acquire a more dominating mien as Lady Macbeth, while Robert Hayward, though quite imposing as Macbeth, needs to produce more polish to Verdi's lyrical demands.

Both will almost certainly improve as they grow into their roles, as will the production over coming performances. There were no problems, however, with Peter Auty's ardent Macduff nor with Richard Farnes' marvellously intense direction of the Opera North orchestral forces.

The next performances at Leeds Grand Theatre are today, May 14, 21 and 24 (0844-848-2720 www.

leedsgrandtheatre.com) followed by Newcastle Theatre Royal on June 4 and June 7 (0844-811-2121 www.theatrereroyal.co.uk).

The season of Shakespeare-inspired opera continues with Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, with five performances from tomorrow, and Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, three performances from May 17, both at Leeds and later on tour to Newcastle