English National Opera has previously vacated to the Young Vic for smaller-scale operas and has now formed what is intended as a long-term association with The Hampstead Theatre, an inviting and comfortable auditorium with an excellent acoustic. The first collaboration is Jakob Lenz, with music by Wolfgang Rihm to a libretto by Michael Fröhling after Lenz by Georg Büchner.

Jakob Lenz was completed by Rihm in 1978. It has been seen in London before, but this is the first time in English courtesy of a first-class and convincing translation by Richard Stokes. Lenz, a playwright and poet, is in mental decline. He arrives at Oberlin the pastor's house. Lenz is hallucinating, something heated by his unrequited love for Friederike Brion. Solace not found in the mountains, Lenz is inconsolable and attempts suicide by drowning. A fellow playwright and friend, Kaufmann, also fails to mediate. Lenz is on a downwards spiral, and ultimately he is left to it.

The setting is vivid and haunting, very watery, thick with flax, the outline of the pastor's church offering sanctuary, if not for Lenz. We are in an inhospitable place, dangerous, surreal. The music is challenging, expressionist, sometimes recalling Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and also 'softening' to German romanticism. Alex Ingram secured some terrific playing from the 11-person ENO ensemble.

The cast is splendid, whether Jonathan Best (Oberlin) or Richard Roberts (Kaufmann) and Suzy Cooper acts the apparition of Friederike. There are also children and the voices of women. All get thoroughly soaked! Andrew Shore is stunning as Lenz, totally unswerving and inside the role, charting a descent into madness that is compelling and disturbing.

Directed with assurance and imagination by Sam Brown, with convincing lighting and costumes, this is a powerful beginning to ENO at Hampstead. Jakob Lenz is thoroughly recommended.