Magic Flute, Theatre Royal, Brighton, Friday

10:50am Monday 21st May 2007

If you were anywhere in the vicinity of New Road, Brighton, at the weekend, you would have heard some squeals of laughter and some childish giggling.

Have no fear - it was the gentle spirit of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart being hugely amused at a new production of his last opera, The Magic Flute.

Written for the Theater an der Wien, a popular musical run by Emanuel Schikanader, who was a friend of Mozart and the librettist of this work, it received its premiere on September 30, 1791, just weeks before the composer's death. It is a rich mixture of solemnity and playfulness, a send-up of freemasonry, a celebration of The Enlightenment and of the ordinary public of suburban Vienna.

And in this new production by the Armonico Consort and the Orchestra of the Baroque from Warwickshire, the balance of that blend is captured to perfection. Indeed, I would go so far as to say this was a hugely enjoyable and satisfying production and one of the best Magic Flutes I have ever seen.

This company brought Purcell's The Fairy Queen to the Brighton Festival last year and the same composers performed King Arthur earlier last week.

Through director Thomas Guthrie the company has become a by-word for freshness, innovation and the sheer joy of opera. This Magic Flute has served only to enhance this reputation.

Guthrie has assembled a talented troupe of singers and musicians and I could not help but fall in love with the Princess Pamina of Elin Manahan Thomas, a fine soprano who sang of love and yearning with tremendous feeling and a heart-melting quality. Mark Wilde's Prince Tamino did the same excellent work in the male role.

Guthrie himself took on the role of Papageno and gave his audience a blustery, blokey bird-catcher, full of jokes, cracker-barrel philosophy and general down-to-earthness.

The singing was generally of a very high standard, to a beautifully witty and sparkling English text and sung with a clarity which would put to shame many English National Opera productions.

This was as near a perfect Magic Flute as you could wish for and would serve as the perfect introduction to opera for newcomers. It would also satisfy buffs as well.

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