Mozart wrote Il Re Pastore, The Pastoral King, when he was just 19 and it is often billed as an early Mozart piece.

But for this composer 19 was middle age - he would die at 32 - and by that point he'd been composing and performing for more than a decade.

This opera was written for a visit to Salzburg by Empress Maria Theresa and tells of a shepherd offered a throne by Alexander The Great but who would have to lose his lover if he accepted.

After a lot of heart-searching and splendid singing, all is resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

To a modern audience, the piece is somewhat static but the Classical Opera Company invested it with lots of movement, making full and effective use of the Theatre Royal stage.

It was sung in Italian and without surtitles as promised because of a technical fault. But that didn't matter, this deceptively simple production amply told us the tale.

It is an ensemble piece which requires five good singers and the five selected by the company were all on top form. The shepherd, Aminta, sung by soprano Deborah Norman was deliciously pure and, in the aria in scene two, was absolutely breathtaking.

The rest of the cast, tenor Darren Abrahams as Alexander, soprano Bethsabe Haas as Elisa, tenor Christopher Saunders as Agenore and soprano Elena Ferrari as Tamiri were more than equal to their task and the whole piece gelled together to reveal yet another Mozart masterpiece.

It was smashing, feel-

good stuff, with lots of tunes - many foreshadowing Mozart's greater operas - and the musicians of the Classical Ensemble conducted by Ian Page pulled out all the stops to make for a marvellous evening.

Theatre Royal, New Road, Brighton Wednesday