Opera: The Ballad of Baby Doe; Bloomsbury Theatre, London

In the European imagination, American operas of a certain age never quite escape the shadow of Broadway: if we want that, we'll have the genuine article, thanks.

Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe, premiered in 1956, is in the US repertoire, but hasn't been performed here. Enter University College Opera (UCO), a student-based company with a 45-year history embracing 16 British premieres, now adding Moore's opera. Its appeal for UCO is apparent: rousing choruses, strong storyline, surging tunes, dances, English libretto. All the things we expect from Broadway.

That may not qualify it as Neglected Masterpiece, but it's a genuinely theatrical piece with clear traces of verismo, based on real-life events. That has never been a guarantee of anything, and the intrusion of President Arthur is one narrative ingredient that obstructs an otherwise pointed rags- to-riches-and-all-the-way-back-again story.

In 1880, Horace Tabor has clawed his way from stone-cutter poverty to mine-owning riches. Trapped in a frosty marriage to Augusta, he falls in love with glamorous divorcee Baby Doe, and she with him. Horace divorces Augusta, marries Baby Doe but, years later, falls victim to the collapse of the silver standard: now, you don't get many operas about that. Racked with poverty, he returns to the theatre he had built as a memorial to his power. There he hallucinates encounters with both his wives, and dies a broken man.

Sentimental? You bet, and with music to match - but that hasn't impeded Puccini. Like Puccini, Moore's sympathies are with the women. Augusta and Baby Doe are sharply observed and here well sung by, respectively, the Dutch mezzo Klara Uleman and the Irish soprano Regina Nathan. Uleman is particularly impressive, her English flawless, her voice smooth, her characterisation minutely detailed. Augusta's big Act 2 aria ponders a ruined life, and Uleman finds subtle inflections of bemusement, melancholy and longing. A singer to watch.

Nathan has already made a mark with her light, sweet voice, and if here she sometimes gave the impression of needing a run at the high notes, they rang out cleanly when she got there. As Horace, Omar Ebrahim shows signs of vocal wear, but he is his usual devilish self. Parts taken by chorus members are less impressive, and, unsurprisingly, the chorus as a whole displays more energy than finesse. The orchestra, conducted by David Drummond, had some rough moments in the winds, but displayed the gusto the piece demands.

Directing professional soloists and student chorus has its problems. Robert Chevara rightly opts for bristle and bustle in the large ensembles. On this opening night, the movement looked too precise and the soloists seemed at times to have been left to their own devices, of which they had plenty, but the staging, like Katrina Lindsay's designs, is generally straightforward. Giuseppe di Iorio's lighting is atmospheric, starkly, even blindingly melodramatic when required, otherwise effectively subtle. It would be misleading to make grand claims for The Ballad of Baby Doe, but it's a very American piece, unafraid to wear its heart in its buttonhole.

n `The Ballad of Baby Doe' is at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London WC1. Further performances 7.30pm Friday, Saturday. Booking: 0171-388 8822

NICK KIMBERLEY