The trickiest task facing anyone directing Mozart's Magic Flute is to hold together its seemingly irreconcilable elements - esoteric mysticism and knockabout farce, emotional profundity and rough-hewn naivety - while maintaining constant dramatic momentum. The great virtue of David McVicar's production, first seen in 2003, and here scrupulously revived by Lee Blakeley, is that it makes this most delicate of balancing acts seem easy.
The blending process is helped by John Macfarlane's designs. These collate various references to the Flute's philosophical background in Enlightenment thought, as well as the low pantomime tradition of its magical tricks and even the famous nocturnal panorama designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for a production of the opera in Berlin in 1816, all bathed in the atmospheric chiaroscuro of Paule Constable's lighting. Yet for all the research that has gone into its visual complexity, the production's overall impression as experienced in the theatre is one of sheer and vital entertainment.
A lot of this is down to the strength of the first of two casts, among whom Simon Keenlyside's Papageno once again stands out for his breathtaking accomplishment. He sings his songs with the taste and imagination of a great lieder singer, acts the role inside out, and throws in a level of physical commitment that is nothing short of amazing. This is an unforgettably touching and disarmingly human interpretation.
Nobody else manages quite so much. The new Tamino, Christoph Strehl, is a shade stiff vocally and dramatically, though still more than presentable. Genia Kühmeier, who partners him as Pamina, is no mover either but her singing is impeccable. As the Queen of the Night, Erika Miklosa not only hits all her impossible notes but sings them with a tone as glamorous as her hauteur is regal.
McVicar's production does not shy away from the spiritual leader Sarastro's dislikable authoritarian tendencies, but his nobler side is also well presented in Stephen Milling's realisation. Thomas Allen is the dignified Speaker, Kishani Jayasinghe an irresistible Papagena. And John Graham-Hall makes an enjoyable meal of Monostatos, not so much a head slave as team leader of a jibbering crew of down-at-heel flunkeys, presumably newly dumped on the scrapheap of revolutionary change.
The German conductor Roland Böer adds to the evening's energy with a pacey account that, in its hurry, leaves singers behind once or twice. His music-making could also do with a bit more character, but the orchestra plays well for him.
· In rep until March 1. Box office: 020-7304 4000.
