For a fairly popular opera, Der fliegende Holländer does not come round often. Like Wagner's anti-hero, cursed to wander the seas and only put in to land every seven years, the work itself seems fated to be an infrequent visitor, forever in search of the elusive production that might be worthy of it.

The Royal Opera's new staging by Tim Albery is serviceable rather than inspiring. The action is updated to the postwar years, set it in a drab world of dilapidated interiors that looks like eastern Europe. No wonder Senta wants to escape the dreary sweatshop where she works, with its rows of sewing machines and utilitarian strip lighting. For reasons made only half clear she seems to have set her heart on a model of the Dutchman's ship and ends the opera cradling it in her arms instead of throwing herself into the sea after him - one of a handful of doubtful ideas, though much else is strongly handled.