Unwrapping Neil Armfield's brown paper parcel of a Figaro has proved much more fun second time around. Welsh National Opera has assembled a cast whose ensemble work positively sparkled on this opening night of Caroline Chaney's revival, with the comedy timed almost to perfection, and revolution in the air.

The brown paper drapes still loom a bit low and heavy in Dale Ferguson's set but, against the period costumes, the mischievously anachronistic props - swivel chair, iron, salon hairdrier, tea urn and trolley - are light and witty touches deftly used. The stuttering Don Curzio also relies on some ace manoeuvring of a modern wheelchair and, together with his outrageously mincing Don Basilio, Aled Hall pulls off a neat tenor double here. James Rutherford is not new to the title role but, two and half years on, is physically so much more relaxed as to be almost unrecognisable. Vocally, too, there was greater assurance, and his partnership with Natalie Christie - a vivacious and feisty Susanna - had good chemistry.

What makes this production work so well is the way it brings out the subversive edge - the very aspect of the original Beaumarchais play that so fired Mozart's imagination. Count Almaviva may have renounced his feudal right to the virgin brides but he remains as predatory as ever: charming, volatile, amoral, emotionally immature. The dark quality that Christopher Purves achieved here was most impressive, aristocratic of tone and gesture, while Geraldine McGreevy's Countess had matured, although her arias were still less comfortable than the recitative. Under Rinaldo Alessandrini there was a real bite to the music and, crucially, pace and energy levels sustained right to the exultant end and the count's comeuppance.

· At the Apollo, Oxford, tomorrow and Thursday. Box office: 0870 606 3500. Then touring.