Tim Supple's theatrical collaborations with the poet Carol Ann Duffy have established them as the fairy-tale dream team, so it is astute of Opera North to bring in the originators of the acclaimed Grimm Tales to work their rough magic on Mozart's most child-friendly opera. They transform the piece into a wide-eyed adventure story, capturing Mozart's playful naivety without diminishing the intellectual content. As with all of Supple and Duffy's best work, simplicity is a disguise for deep sophistication.
Supple's most significant sleight of hand occurs in the overture, in which Sarastro and the Queen of the Night appear locked in furious disagreement. Their ensuing custody battle over Pamina thus resembles Oberon and Hippolyta's falling-out in A Midsummer Night's Dream, creating a ferocious schism between the forces of light and dark in which everyone becomes implicated. And whereas the Queen and her cohorts are usually banished at the end of the opera, Supple arranges for her and Sarastro to kiss and make up, so that universal harmony is restored.
Nor does Supple duck out of the work's most contentious issue. Many productions fudge the nasty business of the racism implicit in the character of Monostatos. Supple deals with that at a stroke by casting all of the higher orders of Sarastro's brotherhood as black. Dark skin becomes representative of the forces of light, and the sound-world it creates is simply sensational: Mark Coles has the magnificent, honeyed tones of an evangelical preacher, while Keel Watson and Ronald Samm are exceptional as his two leading priests.
William Lacey's fleet conducting is well attuned to the vivacity of the staging, and all the main parts are substantially filled by engaging young singers. Helen Williams's coloratura fusillade as the Queen of the Night has to be mentioned, but ultimately, thanks to Supple's boyish approach, this is Papageno's opera. Matthew Sharp brings his mile-wide grin and a throatily coarse tone to the part of the birdcatcher who, in his grubby jeans and woolly hat, looks less like an initiate preparing for spiritual enlightenment than an unwashed eco-warrior about to jump the fence at Glastonbury.
· In rep until April 29. Box office: 0113-222 6222. Then touring.
