First on stage are three Garsington boys. They have much to do: they climb over the roof, they sing, they act as stage-hands. And then, before our very eyes, they transform into angels by clipping on winged harnesses - and they manage this without making themselves look like complete prunes, writes Gile Woodforde.

Two teams are involved, Edmund Caird, Ben King and Nicholas Ashby alternate with Misha Brazier Tope, Andy Softley and Andrew Bell.

Next comes a very different trio. The strongly characterised Three Ladies (Julie Unwin, Michelle Walton and Ruth Peel) shimmer in beaded cocktail dresses - this is a Zauberfl-te set between the wars. Their voices are razor-sharp, fuelled, no doubt, by years of dispensing malicious gossip at parties. Tamino (a strongly sung and acted performance from Rufus Mller) looks urban too, in his sharp suit and wide-brimmed hat. Visually there's the touch of a Gestapo agent here, but no Gestapo man would be so frightened of a ginger snake (the ladds again, this time acting as animation operators).

"The birdcatcher Papageno bounces in and introduces himself," reads the synopsis. Actually he also comes across the roof. Once down the ladder, however, Riccardo Novaro gives a glorious, comic performance, with assured singing and acting. But this Papageno is short-sighted: when Papagena (Bibi Heal) hobbles on, disguised as an old lady, it's obvious at once that the filthy cloak hides an extremely vivacious girl.

There are strong performances, too, from Jennifer Rhys-Davies as the Queen of the Night, Felicity Hammond as Pamina, Stephen Allen as Monostatos and Alan Ewing as Sarastro. Accompaniment, from the Garsington Opera Orchestra under Steuart Bedford, fits like a glove.

But the really memorable aspect of James Macdonald's production is that it gives equal weight to all the many and varied aspects of Mozart and Schikaneder's opera. For instance, there's a hilarious moment when a whole menagerie of animals pops up through the floor, while, in contrast, the initiation ceremony is sung most movingly, with natural daylight fading in the background and stage lighting coming up to full intensity.