No work seems to me to make better sense in the vernacular than Mozart’s concluding masterpiece. The composer and, assuredly, Schikaneder would have approved of giving the work in the language of the listeners, and when you have to hand such a witty, well-worded translation as that of Jeremy Sams, it makes even better sense. Sir Charles Mackerras, in his many performances at ENO and WNO, has always been an advocate of opera in English when the circumstances are right, as they certainly are here.

As ever, Mackerras proves himself a loving and perceptive Mozartian. Throughout he wonderfully contrasts the warmth and sensuousness of the music for the good characters with the fire and fury of the baddies, and he persuades the LPO strings – indeed, the whole orchestra – to play with a lightness and promptness that is wholly enchanting, quite the equal of most bands on the other available versions. The conductor’s note in the booklet, reprinted from that in his earlier set, explains cogently his choice of tempi and orchestral sonority, which always seem acutely judged.

In no way is his interpretation here inferior to that (in German) on Telarc; indeed, in the central roles of Tamino and Pamina the casting for Chandos is an improvement, and Keenlyside is fully the equal of Thomas Allen on the Telarc set. As in Mackerras’s recent performances at Covent Garden, Keenlyside’s loveable, slightly sad, very human and perfectly sung Papageno is at the centre of things. I wish only that he had been allowed rather more of his dialogue – speech here is cut to the minimum.

Rebecca Evans gives her most enjoyable performance on disc to date. Her voice has taken on a new richness without losing any of its focus or delicacy of utterance. Everything she does has sincerity and poise, although her diction might, with advantage, be clearer. Pamina’s G minor aria positively benefits from being taken at a swift pace, just as it did on the Telarc set.

With Keenlyside and the other male members of the cast, the text is always given its due. Barry Banks, once over a slightly laboured Portrait Aria, sings an eager, involving Tamino, full of passion allied to Mozartian grace. John Tomlinson’s highly articulate and authoritative Sarastro is another pleasure, his few moments of unsteadiness compensated for by the vocal weight he brings to the part. Elizabeth Vidal, a name new to me, is a suitably dramatic Queen of Night, no mere soubrette, and she really makes her coloratura work an expression of the character’s volatility, although her words are far from easy to understand. Christopher Purves is a suitably benign Speaker, Lesley Garrett an expectedly cheeky, North-of-England Papagena. There are three feisty Ladies and the smaller roles are filled with Opera-in-English stalwarts.

The recording is fine apart from an over-use of thunder and lightning as sound effects. The booklet, besides Mackerras’s note, has an enlightening essay by Rodney Milnes. All in all, anyone wanting the work in English need not hesitate to acquire this set, the first-ever version in the vernacular on CD.