La Finta Giardiniera, completed when Mozart was 18, is best regarded as a work of prophecy. All the seeds of his brief, dazzling maturity are contained within its span.

Yet even with the advocacy of Sir John Eliot Gardiner it fails to spring to complete dramatic life, despite the many real pleasures on the way.

With his own English Baroque Soloists in the pit, Gardiner brings characteristic febrile energy to the episodic arias, each clear in emotional directness but lacking sufficient context to stir our engagement until the sombre third act, when the drama steps up a gear, and the music with it.

The production was something of a non-event after director Chrisoph Loy walked out leaving Annika Haller to bring the modern-dress 1998 Dusseldorf staging to life. But there was far too little in the way of tight control, encouraging some hammy acting which nevertheless raised laughs from the far-from-packed auditorium. Perhaps at this late stage in the Mozart anniversary year the appetite for novelty is waning?

Most of the darkest music goes to Sandrina, the disguised gardener of the title who is, naturally, a Marchioness. Genia Kuhmeier, though sympathetic, took a while to settle and suffered tonal lapses. Patrizia Biccirè's maid had esprit. Camilla Tilling, as Arminda, "a Milanese lady", offered a full vanity case of cat-walk gestures, flooring Robert Murray as the fickle Belfiore.

Only two voices really stood out, however: Sophie Koch in the trouser role of Ramiro whose Act III vengeance aria makes you sit up to attention, and Christopher Maltman in the cameo role of Nardo, the servant-gardener. There are only so many things you can do with a watering can. He tried them all.

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