A quick bite at the Chinese restaurant alongside Milton Keynes Theatre proved to be appropriate preparation for Welsh National Opera's Magic Flute. For what should be the first sight when the curtain goes up? It's a giant prawn (aka lobster) appearing through one of the many doorways in Julian Crouch's set design.

Influenced by Belgian surrealist artist Magritte, this Flute certainly offers a visual spectacle - the members of Sarastro's brotherhood are dressed in bright orange greatcoats with matching orange bowler hats, for instance, and Jules Verne is brought in too, with an elaborate flying machine (pictured) carrying the three boys across the stage.

As the production unfolds, however, you begin to wonder what all this has to do with The Magic Flute. Certainly, the raised box set, enclosed in quite a small picture frame, does suggest a closed Masonic society on which you are privileged to gaze. But you also get the feeling that a 'designer concept' was allowed to rule the roost over a straightforward good versus evil reading of the opera from stage director Dominic Cooke (revival director, Benjamin Davis) when the production was first mounted in 2005. At times, the situation becomes downright silly - as Sarastro (David Soar, singing with both compassion and dignity) delivers O Isis and Osiris, the bowler-hatted brothers pop up through holes in the floor, waving orange umbrellas. This wrecks the emotion of the moment.

But all is not lost. Forward from 2005 comes Rebecca Evans's Pamina. This is a star performance, depicting a character who is no wimp to be walked over, but yet is full of humanity and warmth. Evans sings gloriously throughout, with her big Act II aria containing a breathtaking range of light and shade. Moving, too, is her duet with Neal Davies's Papageno - a cheerful and uncomplicated soul. Fair's fair to the visuals though, the transformation of Papagena (Claire Hampton) from old hag to feisty girl is a knockout. Russell Thomas was a rather wooden Tamino, perhaps worried about hitting his top notes, while Laure Meloy as Queen of the Night attacked her big arias with laser-like intensity, if little subtlety.

Besides Rebecca Evans, this revival has another star: conductor Gareth Jones, who vividly captures all the light, rhythmic touches in Mozart's score, without losing any of the music's depth.

There's another performance of The Magic Flute tonight, with Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin tomorrow. Tickets: 0870 060 6652 (www.miltonkeynestheatre.com).