Works by contemporary composers performed by Welsh National Opera in the last thirty years barely reach double figures.

WNO is not unusual in this, and it takes a brave company to commission and perform new work.

But courage is now a watchword in Cardiff, shown to advantage in the Spring season theme of 'Fallen Women'.

Actually it's just two women who are no better than they should be: Violetta Valéry in Verdi's La Traviata and Manon Lescaut in the opera of that name by Puccini and in Hans Werner Henze's Boulevard Solitude, a re-telling of the Manon story.

The production team for the Henze work, including conductor Lothar Koenigs, is more or less the same as that which gave us Puccini’s in a cluttered and unfocused version.

Boulevard Solitude, however, has Polish director Mariusz Trelinski and his colleagues finding common cause with the original storyline, bringing it up to date with a series of overlapping tableaux that, despite the fuzzy locations, reinforce and improve Henze's conception. Trelinski probably resisted the temptation to create totally different settings for the two Manon versions, which turned out to be a good thing, as did WNO's decision to book-end them with La Traviata in the middle. The company's daring lay not only in choosing the Henze work to complete its theme but in allowing Trelinski to present the two operas as an over-arching view of the Manon story on basically the same set.

Jason Bridges (des Grieux), Sarah Tynan (Manon), Benjamin Bevan (Lescaut), Adrian Thompson (Lilaque), Alastair Moore (Francis), Laurence Cole (Lilaque Jr.), Tomasz Wygoda (Mr Man) and the actors form a well-chosen cast. This is a reasonably easy sing with difficult moments but its sharpness was engineered by Koenigs and the orchestra, who deservedly got the biggest round of applause on the opening night.

Henze’s vivid and eclectic score keeps everyone attentive and portrays a corrupt society as well as delineating its willing victims.

Less a tale about Manon, who, In Puccini's eyes and like Verdi's protagonist, is more to be pitied than scolded, Henze concentrates on her hapless boyfriend des Grieux and his love for someone who seems scarcely to reciprocate it.

A modern work realised in a thoroughly modern way and, in terms of what preceded it, a triumph.

The company now needs to break away from the gloom that has been pervading its 2013-14 presentations. Everything at the moment, apart from the revived production of La Traviata, which brings its own mood of lowering despair, seems to be inscribed inside a black box of a set. Though it's not likely to break through for a few more productions, we could do with some light.