Die Zauberflöte
Opera

Regula Mühlemann is blessed with a wonderfully fine, bright voice, which she also knows how to use in the 'Magic Flute'. She leads her soprano in a natural-looking and all the more fascinating melodic flow.

What a contrast: instead of in the spotlight at the world's most important opera festival, she now sang in front of an audience of 15 - but worthy of Salzburg: perfect intonation, radiant colours, intoxicating effortlessness, intelligently shaped lines without mannerisms, tasteful Mozart singing, as she has already shown on her two Mozart CDs. But Kai Kluge, the Tamino at her side, didn't have to hide a bit either: he has a round, warm timbre as a basic colour up to the highest heights, but also a nice dose of metal when the situation demands it. André Morsch sang an appealingly solid Papageno, while Rainelle Krause's Queen of the Night not only proved to be secure in her high notes and colouratura, but also put a lot of cutting sharpness into her revenge aria.

His [Simon McBurney's] empty, black stage is abstract. In the centre, a movable stage floor provides steep mountain terrain or cave-like shelter. This puts the performers centre stage. And the lively ensemble centred around the Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann as Pamina is a vocal delight.

The high quality of this directorial work is reflected in the fact that it does justice to the different levels of this difficult piece: from opulent folk and Punch and Judy theatre with its passion for illusion and technical gimmicks to an oratorio dealing with a religious-philosophical context. But even where Mozart and Schikaneder go very abstract, McBurney's theatre remains comprehensible and vivid.

Theater Basel presents a 'Magic Flute' that is as wonderfully staged as it is sung and has the makings of a big hit - if only the audience had the chance to go wild.