Mozart’s opera is a singspiel, with stretches of spoken dialogue — not unlike a classic musical. So it’s often awkward to present the work as written to non-German audiences; the dialogue just doesn’t come off as direct and understandable.

This production has an inspired solution. As in a silent film, the characters’ words go unspoken but are projected as intertitles in English on a black screen, while music from two moody Mozart keyboard pieces (the fantasies in D minor and C minor) is played, by Frank Schulte, on fortepiano. It’s touching yet ominous when poor Tamino wakes up looking lost and lonely, and asks — or so the intertitle says — “Where am I?” as Mozart’s mysterious music plays.

The production keeps on boldly mixing madcap animated film with a deep dive into the opera’s philosophical issues. The bird catcher Papageno (the hearty baritone Rodion Pogossov, in an endearing performance) has the look of Buster Keaton, with a floppy cap and a frumpy forest-green suit. Pamina, with whom Tamino falls in love, is here a Louise Brooks lookalike (the radiant soprano Maureen McKay, in a standout performance).