This Magic Flute, which is performed in English, should come with a warning. You have to look closely at the back of the DVD case to learn that it is heavily, and indeed horribly, abridged. ‘Bei Männern’, the ‘O Isis und Osiris’ chorus and the trio for Pamina, Tamino and Sarastro are omitted, as is Pamina’s attempted suicide; there are cuts within numbers, such as the Portrait aria and the quintet ‘Hm, Hm, Hm’. The Overture is butchered; another grievous loss is the chorale prelude for the Two Armed Men.

This version is aimed at children, presumably, and makes the cardinal error of underestimating their capacity to concentrate, understand and enjoy. Provided that the performance is engaging enough, that is: the sad thing is that this emasculated production is enchanting. There are no great voices – even René Pape seems out of sorts; and in the spoken dialogue his accent may remind you of Henry Kissinger, or perhaps Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the teamwork is excellent.

The best performance comes from Nathan Gunn as Papageno, with his irrepressible energy and sense of comic timing. Greg Fedderly as Monostatos is also well inside his part, though he plays it for laughs and under-emphasises the character’s wicked side. Erika Miklósa as The Queen of the Night delivers her arias with impressive accuracy but is less than convincing in the dialogue. Matthew Polenzani and Ying Huang make a believably young pair of lovers.

The production is a visual delight, with its bright colours, puppets and masks. It is, predictably, entirely politically correct. James Levine’s conducting is well-judged, save for a funereal ‘Tamino mein!’. Give this to your children, then take them to the opera house.