The Welsh National Opera revival of Richard Jones's Wozzeck has retained its brilliant edge, sharp as the can-lid with which Wozzeck cuts his partner Marie's throat, and then his own wrists. It's gruesome alright. Yet, in Jones's characteristic style, this ending is a logical conclusion of his decision to set Berg's opera in a canning factory, in which the individual is reduced to a barcode, and a mind-numbing conveyor belt becomes a metaphor for life. In this context, Wozzeck's apocalyptic flights of imagination seem less like madness than a necessary defence against his alien, bullying world.

In 2005, the staging was WNO's first statement of intent in its new Millennium Centre home; now, it is a similarly forthright declaration on the part of new music director Lothar Koenigs. His reading may not ­ emphasise the beauty of the score as Vladimir Jurowski's did, but Koenigs's work on Schoenberg and Richard Strauss with the WNO orchestra bears fruit here with emotional force.

Christopher Purves returns to the title role with renewed authority. His depiction of Wozzeck's anguish is almost unbearably touching, and the moments in which he waxes lyrical about nature carry the most glorious tone-colours. Wioletta Chodowicz's Marie is resonant throughout her range, thus correcting the only conspicuous failing of the original, while Peter Hoare's Captain is still robustly quirky.

It is a staging that demands to be seen. This season, beans means Wozzeck

Rating *****