Christopher Alden is turning into the director who shocks most when he is least shocking. The one-time enfant terrible has returned to Leeds to revive Falla’s tragedy, pairing it with a new production of Puccini’s comedy.

Little is left to the imagination in the Falla, with gratuitous rape, incest and assault thrown into the hothouse setting of a wedding-dress factory.

Salud pines feverishly over her sewing-machine for Paco, losing out to high-class tart Carmela. Here the intermezzo’s sunset scents and the two dances count for little. Jac van Steen is caught in a no-man’s-land between shepherding his volatile singers and keeping his orchestra on a reasonable leash.

Anne Sophie Duprels is a compellingly energetic Salud, though her slow suicide is almost too much to watch. Jesús Álvarez is her stand-offish Paco. Elizabeth Sikora’s concerned Grandmother, Brian Bannatyne-Scott’s fierce Uncle Sarvaor and Daniel Norman’s arrogant transvestite all add spice.

Gianni Schicchi has predictable quirks, too, but works better. Buoso (the agile Tim Claydon) revives after death and climbs all over the set in a red cat-suit. But Alden has no need to add to the humour: he has, in Christopher Purves’s Schicchi, a consummate jester.

Purves slopes on in mafioso shades and spivvy suiting – Doey Lüthi’s costumes are nicely distinctive – and his supple baritone masterminds the mayhem, fixing Buoso’s fake will in his favour.

Álvarez despatches Rinuccio’s aria with considerable ardour and Jennifer France brings a pretty, light soprano to Lauretta’s. With the likes of Peter Savidge as Marco and Sikora, Bannatyne-Scott and Norman returning as other relatives, there is strength in depth.

Van Steen extracts new transparency from his orchestra: Puccini’s motifs shine through. Buoso’s antics apart, Alden’s restraint is almost shocking. Further performances will take place in Leeds on Wednesday and Saturday, then on tour.