What is more surreal than to watch French opera at its most sophisticated in a half-derelict mansion in Hampshire? At Grange Park, near Winchester, one of the finest of all Greek Revival houses, the wonder is that surrealism triumphs.

That is so not just in the improbable setting but in the choice this year of one of the operas, the second of a French double-bill, saluting the centenary of Francis Poulenc, Les Mamelles de Tirésias. Based on a play by Apollinaire, Poulenc wrote this frivolous opéra bouffe - in which the heroine becomes a man and her husband has thousands of children - at the height of the Nazi occupation of Paris.

Was it escapism or simply defiance of macho Nazi values? At least at Grange Park, with minimal sets and a straightforward production by Stewart Laing, it made a good romp. Lionel Friend drew lively playing from the Grange Park Orchestra, and the American soprano, Susan Roberts, was aptly abrasive as Therese, with Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts well cast as her husband. Best of all was George Mosley as the Director.

Truth to tell, Les Mamelles de Tirésias is neither very funny nor even satirical, just dotty. It was not helped by coming after a comic masterpiece, deliciously done in French (with subtitles) - Ravel's farcical one-acter, L'Heure Espagnole. With Lionel Friend again conducting, it was easier to hear the French words than the English ones in Poulenc, and the timing was a delight.