Of all the Mozart anniversary celebrations, this production by the Classical Opera Company of his very first opera may well turn out to be one of the most meaningful. Written when he was 11 years old, Apollo and Hyacinthus affords a better perspective on Mozart's extraordinary musical sensibilities than any historical account of the parading of his prodigious talent round the courts of Europe. It is not simply the fluency and stylistic flair that is astonishing, but the degree to which he is already able to create real characters and feelings. Logic would dictate that a boy could not possess the emotional maturity for such insights.

Apollo and Hyacinthus is a mini opera seria, its three short acts last just over an hour. There are elements of tragedy: the youth Hyyacinthus is killed, the god Apollo is accused of his murder but is exonerated. All ends happily, though, as he gains the hand in marriage of Hyacinthus' sister Melia. Mozart's innate dramatic sense gives recitatives a natural flow, arias are truly expressive; the technique is all there, so is an audibly Mozartean use of the minor mode and chromatic colour.

Conductor Ian Page ensured some elegant work from his singers, notably Rebecca Bottone's brightly ringing Melia. That the evening was much more than an academic exercise was thanks to director Annilese Miskimmon. Casting an 11-year-old - James Killeen - as the boy Mozart imagining his own staging, a miniature theatre replicating the main set, was itself a delightful conceit, but carrying the idea through so that he moved props and acted out bits of plot - flying a kite to convey Zephyrus's transformation - showed wit and charm. It was a constant reminder that the nightshirted boy was a born genius whom, by curtain call, could justifiably sport the robes of a young Apollo.

· At Buxton Festival on July 13, 16 and 20. Box office: 0845 127 2190.