This Zurich staging of 2000 (why is this theatre so much favoured on DVD?) is a facsimile of Jonathan Miller’s Age of Enlightenment production for ENO some years ago. We are in a Masonic library where the good and the wise study in serenity. One of their number falls asleep while reading and has a dream in which the opera’s action takes place with him participating as Tamino. The concept has some validity in relating Schikaneder’s libretto to its own period‚ but – at Zurich at any rate – much is lost in terms of the comedy and imagination of the original. Philip Prowse’s heavy scenery depicting the library and Sarastro’s temple inhibits Papageno’s part in the proceedings and negates many of the work’s fairy­tale elements. For instance‚ the creatures conjured up by Tamino’s flute are anonymous and un­charming‚ while the vision of fire and water in the trial is entirely absent. In general‚ the action is too stiff and confined. Then the dialogue has been shortened and altered to ill effect. Welser­Möst seconds Miller’s ideas with a rather serious‚ almost too prompt account of the score that debilitates Mozart’s inspiration. He leads a good but not outstanding cast‚ Malin Hartelius’s appealing‚ full­throated Pamina its strongest element – her cry of ‘Die Wahrweit!’ is truly affirmative. Piotr Beczala‚ a tenor new to me‚ sings with strong tone and a mastery of Mozartian style‚ but he is a stiff‚ uncommunicative actor. Anton Scharinger is a well­routined Papageno‚ with a confident delivery and a dream of a Viennese accent‚ but his portrayal has become self­conscious to a fault: he should never have been allowed to sing the third verse of his Act 2 aria as if he were inebriated. Elena Mosuc is a rather edgy Queen of Night. At the other end of the vocal scale‚ Matti Salminen remains an authoritative‚ sympathetic Sarastro. The rest are only so­so. Sound and video direction are average. As ever with TDK‚ the booklet is entirely inadequate‚ without a word about the production or the singers to enlighten potential buyers. All in all this version offers no competition to the wonderfully simple and highly imaginative Ludwigsburg production‚ finely conducted by Gönnenwein with a superior cast to Zurich’s.