Translated literally from German, the word singspiel means “song play” or “song games.” That’s how Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) is listed in the Köchel Catalog, the official list of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s works: as a singspiel. Some of Mozart’s peers in late 18th-century Vienna thought he was slumming around by writing singspiels, a genre associated with low-bar humor and beer-hall music.

But for most of the past two centuries, Die Zauberflöte has been performed in opera houses, just as most of Mozart’s works designated as “operas” are. So what I love most about Shakespeare Theatre Company’s ingenious production of The Matchbox Magic Flute—and there’s a lot to love—is that it takes Die Zauberflöte out of the opera house and returns it to the proletariat, just as the composer intended. As editor Stanley Sadie wrote in the oft-cited New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, everything about Zauberflöte “belongs firmly in the established tradition of Viennese popular theater.”

All that to say, democratizing Zauberflöte, as MacArthur “genius” director and adaptor Mary Zimmerman has done, is a legit artistic exercise. If the idea of an English-language Magic Flute performed with just five musicians, but replete with glorious faux-rococo sets, opulent costumes, and finely tuned comic acting sounds appealing, please try to see this show. It’s terrific.

The Matchbox Magic Flute premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in February. Zimmerman’s creative reimaginings have been on a Chicago-to-D.C. pipeline since 2004, when she directed Pericles at STC. Founding artistic director Michael Kahn invited her back for Argonautika, and the theater’s current artistic director, Simon Godwin, has brought her The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci and now The Matchbox Magic Flute to Washington. (This sort of continuity, unfortunately, is becoming too rare in D.C. theater, as artistic directors retire and their replacements search for shiny new things.) 

Zimmerman’s libretto takes a wink-wink-nudge-nudge approach to Mozart’s plot, a cuckoo mash-up of an extant fairy tale with freemason symbolism. A prince (Billy Rude) is out wandering the forest when he’s attacked by a dragon and rescued by a trio of harmonizing ladies-in-waiting who think he’s a hunk.

“Oh ladies, get a look at him.
Just like a little cherubim.
He must spend hours at the gym!”

Those lines replace original rhyming praise usually translated, “This is indeed a youth most fair, such a beauty in man is rare.”

As the smitten ladies know, Princess Pamina (Marlene Fernandez) has been abducted, and the Prince (no relation) is assigned to rescue her. Along for the ride is Papageno the Bird-Catcher, portrayed by the delightfully comic Shawn Pfautsch, as half avian and entirely birdbrained.

Most cast members are reprising their Chicago roles, which makes sense given the tasks at hand include puppetry, ballet, physical comedy, playing the cello, and singing in a coloratura style. The latter is accomplished with varying degrees of success.

The best voices in the bunch are that of Fernandez and Lauren Molina (Papagena and one of the ladies). Emily Rohm takes on the role of Queen of the Night and her signature aria, usually sung by a marquee soprano, but Rohm and the Queen are not the star attractions here.

There are trade-offs in The Matchbox Magic Flute. It’s understandable that some opera fans will miss hearing a splendid rendition of that aria, which features some of the highest notes in opera. Yet there’s still so much artistry to admire.

Five pit musicians sit just below the stage in costume, where Laura Bergquist conducts from both the piano and celesta. David Lonkevich is spectacular on flute and piccolo, and although the only percussion instruments in Mozart’s score are glockenspiel and timpani, Danny Villanueva has nearly two dozen at his disposal.

Few opera singers have the gifts for physical comedy that Zimmerman’s cast has. In Act II, Russell Mernagh prowls the stage in a hybrid rat/lizard costume as the evil henchman Monostatos. “We’re going to storm the Capitol! I mean, the castle,” he announces, to a crowd that appreciated a little January 6 humor.

Contemporary opera theater productions take varying approaches to the bad guys in The Magic Flute. Monostatos works for the mysterious Sarastro (played by understudy Nathan Karnik), who originally represented something of a tough-love, enlightened freemason leader. Simon McBurney’s critically hailed production for English National Opera, leaned in to that creepy weirdness: “Picture a sooty apocalypse in an almost featureless universe,” a Guardian critic wrote, describing the setting.

Zimmerman’s production, by contrast, is all sunshine and rainbows. Literally. Everyone’s wearing giant sunshine medallions in the finale. A faux proscenium and scallop-shell lights at the foot of the stage reference Sweden’s Drottningholms Slottsteater, one of Europe’s oldest working theaters, where Ingmar Bergman filmed his Magic Flute in 1975. It’s on YouTube, and worth a watch. But it’s been nearly 50 years since the great Swedish director brought The Magic Flute to global cinemas via the traditions of 18th-century theater. Bravo to Zimmerman, the Goodman, Shakespeare Theatre, and all involved for doing the equivalent today. 

Presented by Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Matchbox Magic Flute, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman, with musical arrangements by Amanda Dehnert and Andre Pluess, runs through June 16 at the Klein Theatre. shakespearetheatre.org. $39–$175.