The Andrew Lloyd Webber of his day? It's a title that could arguably be applied to Donizetti. Following its premiere in 1832, his L'elisir d'amore soon became the most frequently performed opera in Italy. Now L'elisir, the delicious story of Nemorino, a simple peasant who falls in love with the rich but apparently heartless Adina, is given a new production for this year's Glyndebourne on Tour season. Directed by Annabel Arden, the action has been updated to - I guess - somewhere in the 1930s. Nemorino is a boiler-suited electrician, charged with investigating the lethal-looking fuse box that controls the village's one street light. In the background is a decaying all-purpose barn and village hall (designer Lez Brotherston), which reminded me strongly of the elderly picture palace in Cinema Paradiso.

Heralded by a trumpet call issuing from cracked loudspeakers mounted on his gaily painted wagon, Dr Dulcamara (Luciano di Pasquale, in a wonderfully over-the-top performance) has arrived in town. As his lantern slides erratically projected on to the front of the village hall proclaim, Dr D. has the cure for everything from toothache to unsightly wrinkles. And then there is his special magic potion, guaranteed to make girls fall in their thousands for the plainest and most unappealing man. As the bottles are handed out, and the money grabbed, by the Doctor's assistant (Róbert Luckay, who affects a wonderful "look what a sucker we've got here" expression), Nemorino is hooked. The love potion is surely the way to Adina's heart.

Adina, meanwhile, has taken up with Sergeant Belcore - and who, in a way, can blame her. For Belcore is sung by Massimo Cavalletti, whose fruity voice and manner are both of truly Wagnerian proportions. It is indeed difficult to imagine that he isn't at least a full Colonel. In proper contrast, Peter Auty gives an impressively observed performance as Nemorino, his singing full of light and shade.

So far so very good. But why is this production often uninvolving? Is it Adriana Kucerova's brittle-voiced Adina? There's a case for her approach, though not much tenderness appears even when she does finally realise that she loves Nemorino after all. No, it's because the village atmosphere is over-choreographed, it doesn't feel spontaneous. Conductor Enrique Mazzola doesn't help either - his tendency to speed up towards the end of choruses, like a Formula 1 driver ordered to get a move on by the pits, frequently leaves the chorus singing in considerable disarray. All in all, this L'elisir is a mixed bag.

There is a further performance of L'elisir d'amore tonight, with Verdi's Macbeth tomorrow. For tickets call 0870 060 6652 (or www.miltonkeynestheatre.com).