Opera East's new staging of Britten's opera at St Bartholomew's, Orford, struck an authentic note. This was where the premieres of the composer's church parables were given, and parts of this very strongly sung production would not have disgraced those early performances.

Yet neither the sacred context nor the resonances of the church's close association with Britten could entirely reconcile the disparate strands of this opera with its pagan story and Christian commentary. Ronald Duncan's libretto took André Obey's drama, in turn based on Shakespeare and Livy. The setting is Rome, 509BC. Lucretia and Collatinus are the perfect couple but, when she is raped by Tarquinius - Tarquin the Proud, the Roman ruler - the psychological damage is so profound that she commits suicide.

Britten used two solo voices to introduce the action and comment on it but, rather than treat them as detached observers, director Alastair Boag makes their involvement more personal, like seers predicting action and unable to prevent it. Ed Lyon's Male Chorus was sung with a tender and epic nobility, while Madeleine Shaw's Female Chorus empathised with Lucretia almost as an alter ego.

Timothy Mirfin's Collatinus and Cerys Jones's Lucretia were movingly sung, and conductor Oliver Gooch brought a dignity and grandeur to Britten's ensembles, notably the final chaconne, in which the parallel with the music of Purcell's and Dido's Lament is as conscious an emulation of the earlier composer as the careful word-setting.

It was a shame that some of the props - the linen sheets and flowers so crucial in the music - were clumsily handled, but even this could not detract from what was musically a very satisfying evening.

· At Orford Church tomorrow then at the Ryan Theatre, Harrow, September 5 and 6. Details: 01728 628599.