THE third instalment of the Opera North's fairy tale ends this season's trilogy with a pleasant smile rather than a bang.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s version of this popular Russian folk story sees the light of day for the first time in 60 years and it's understandable why; given its cold ambience and, coming in at over two and a half hours, it's a rather pedestrian score with a rambling story.

The Snow Maiden, played excellently by soprano Aoife Miskelly, is the princess daughter of Grandfather Frost (James Creswell) and Spring Beauty (Yvonne Howard) but she is kept in isolation lest she falls in love and her ice heart melts.

Of course, this young beauty meets a singing boy called Lel (Heather Lowe) and she becomes desperate to live among humans. Unable to initially feel love amid the surrounding jolly making, the piece is about this frigid, naive princess transforming into someone finding true love and warmth. Sadly at that point her heart melts and, like the ice in sunshine, she fades away.

Director John Fulljames has moved the first half setting away from the Russian peasantry circa 1882 to the proletariat in a clothing sweatshop in 1917 and the second half in 2017, which for an opera celebrating the agrarian seasons, was slightly confusing.

Highpoints include solos from Lowe and Tsar Berendey (Bonaventura Bottone) and the mesmerizing Miskelly, but for too long the script dictates she goes missing and the whole experience felt disjointed.

Sung in English with English titles, The Snow Maiden will be ticked off rather than fondly remembered.

Ed Waugh