Directed by the composer with all the colourful melodrama of an American B-movie, the soloists of Hamburg’s late-1960s house ensemble get a real chance to shine in what is virtually the world premiere of Menotti’s children’s sci-fi opera. In the libretto – a jolly collision between The War of the Worlds, the Munchkins from the land of Oz and Hansel and Gretel – only (tonal) music and musicians can save the earth from the invading Globolinks and their electronic (ie, non-musical) voices. Nikolas Schöffler (lighting) and Alwin Nikolais (costumes and Globolink choreography) make essential contributions to the visual realisation of the aliens as sinister, flexible lampshades, and the creation of a spooky atmosphere a cut above most contemporary TV series.

The score is an eclectic mix of Menotti’s trademark second-generation verismo – handy for the tantrums of the principal role, Madame Euterpova, a wacky mid-European music teacher – and Kurt Weill-like recitative and marching rhythms for the children and their driver whose school trip goes astray in the forest. This musical storytelling has a compelling narrative simplicity which, like Benjamin Britten’s, never becomes saccharine or patronising. The characters, especially the three supporting teachers, have a pleasing Roald Dahl wackiness, making them natural stage roles.

It’s not everyday you get to see Edith Mathis as a violin-playing schoolgirl, or Arlene Saunders (the company’s Agathe and Eva) as the eccentric music teacher with a Bewitched-style nose. Wolansky too is genuinely funny as the confused, and unmusical, head of the school who becomes the one human sacrifice to the Globolinks. Sterling digital restoration seconds the fine balance of the production between comic and serious, making for an unintended but most effective tribute to Menotti’s wide-ranging theatrical creativity.