The kids are all right. Indeed they are more than all right. In Kate Gaul’s new The Magic Flute the youngsters are the ones with the compassion and wisdom to set the adults on the right path.

Michael Smallwood as Tamino and Opera Australia Chorus in The Magic Flute. Photo © Keith Saunders

In the production’s most affecting scene a trio of Spirits (Mozart’s Three Boys) persuades Pamina not to kill herself for love but to trust in it. Even more powerful was the plea for humankind to do the same. The opera is wisely performed in English so the words needed no mediation. “Let peace within our hearts rise/ Then the world would be in paradise,” they sang in Gaul and Michael Gow’s clear, engaging translation.

So much came together here to work the grab-your-heart kind of magic that to this point had been intermittent: the simplicity of the language, the tender age of the singers and the close focus on them and Stacey Alleaume’s shining Pamina.

Crucially there was tender support from the Opera Australia Orchestra and conductor Teresa Riveiro Böhm, making an enticing OA debut.