WHEN Lesley Garrett made her return to the operatic fold a few years ago, she hoped to create a strong-woman role, say Angela Merkel or Christine Lagarde. She ended up in the new opera Pleasure as Val, a lavatory attendant in a gay club.

It is not a come-down. Melanie Challenger’s libretto and Mark Simpson’s music together explore “the pursuit of pleasure [as] an escape from reality”, in Simpson’s words. Garrett slots perfectly into the part of a mother-confessor with problems of her own; she is a consummate actress, who also boasts a sprightly, full-bodied soprano and impeccable diction.

To an extent, all four characters in this gritty, 75-minute drama are damaged goods, looking for redemption. Val’s past is catching up with her: she had been forced to give up her son Nathan as a baby, when his father became violent. Now the adult Nathan has come to the club to find her, while searching for himself. Timothy Nelson’s baritone Nathan is searingly convincing.

He in turn becomes the object of Matthew’s affection – the engaging tenor of Nick Pritchard – but responds ambivalently, confusing Matthew’s expectation. All this happens under the beady eye of the club’s sarcastic owner, drag queen Anna Fewmore, athletically played by Steven Page in kinky costumes by Leslie Travers. The latter’s split-level set has the 10-piece band Psappha, in brilliant form under Nicholas Kok, on the upper deck.

Simpson’s score keeps the vocal lines supremely intelligible, giving most of the fascination to the instruments, who whirl between sensitive string textures and chattering winds, backed by underlying disco flavours. An off-stage male chorus injects Greek-tragedy style observations. For this is, inevitably, a tragedy. But Tim Albery’s production keeps it riveting. Unmissable.

Opera North in Pleasure; Howard Assembly Room, Leeds Touring to Liverpool, Aldeburgh and London until May 14 www.operanorth.co.uk