Having comprehensively outwitted the lecherous Sir John Falstaff, the merry wives of Windsor - through their mouthpiece and chief agent Mistress Quickly (Emma Carrington) - question the astonishing presumption of the rakish knight. Why would Alice Ford (Rebecca Cooper) and Meg Page (Margaret Rapaccioli) put at risk their immortal souls in a dalliance with one such as he - fat, dirty, bald, old and ugly?

The question struck a somewhat jarring note when put during the deeply satisfying climax to Verdi's great final opera, Falstaff, as performed on Sunday at Nevill Holt in Leicestershire, one of the newest and smallest venues for country house opera. The reason it did so was that our Sir John, the full-throated baritone David-Alexandre Borloz, was neither dirty, nor old, nor bald, nor ugly. He wasn't even particularly fat, strutting the stage with far less padding than is traditional in the role. He was a good foot narrower round the waist, say, than Bryn Terfel whom many of us were lucky enough to see earlier in the year in Welsh National Opera's sensational production of the work.

Some of Sunday's audience, I am sure, saw Mr Terfel two nights earlier in a concert performance at Nevill Holt. The lashing rain on the roof, I am told, offered unequal opposition even to his mighty voice, so it was as well that calm prevailed for the less experienced young singers - the Rising Stars of Nevill Holt, as they are styled - performing Falstaff. This was a reworking of Daniel Slater's production seen last summer at Grange Park in Hampshire (from whose well-established festival Nevill Holt's evolved). Revival director Hazel Gould maintained the 21st-century setting, with the action shifted downstream to the centre of London in the shadow of St Paul's and Norman Foster's 'Gherkin'.

Besides the solid contribition from the admirable Mr Borloz, the production benefited from a first-class performance by James Cleverton (pictured) as the comically cuckolded (as he believes) Ford. Though slightly lacking confidence, Verity Parker revealed an appealing and compelling voice as Ford's daughter Nannetta, heard at her best in the all-too-short love duet with her swain Fenton (Patrick Ashcroft). Hyalmar Mitrotti and James Scarlett offered enjoyable comic turns as Falstaff's rebellious sidekicks Pistol and Bardolph.

This enjoyable production, under conductor Alice Farnham, will be given again at Nevill Holt tomorrow and on Sunday. Out on tour, it visits The Theatre, Chipping Norton, on September 26. Box office: 01608 642350.