On Saturday evening, Santa Fe Opera revived its 2006 production of Mozart's The Magic Flute, a staging I applauded then and like even more now, thanks to consistently strong casting and direction that respects and even enriches this masterwork.

The Magic Flute was the last of Mozart's 19 operas to be unveiled, appearing just three months before his death in 1791 at the age of 35. In the realm of art, late works often conceal profundity behind a screen of simplicity. It is enough to simply enjoy The Magic Flute as a morally instructive tale in which Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina prove their love while being buffeted by the rivalries of the Queen of the Night (Pamina's mother) and Sarastro (a charismatic cult leader), navigating a world filled with dangers and miracles, faith and uncertainty. But if you scratch the surface, you may plunge deep into a rabbit hole. Some stagings have steered this opera in weird directions, but director Tim Albery respects the work for what it is, and he clarifies the potentially complicated subtleties of the characters' relationships through simplifying touches.

Some viewers in 2006 complained that the decor was stingy, but I find that the architectural design of the overriding set — a curved wall tracing house left (the domain of the Queen), a straight one defining house right (the court of Sarastro) — provides a clean, attractive space for the proceedings while offering a hint about where rectitude lies in this opera's universe. Costumes (which, like the sets, are the work of Tobias Hoheisel) also raised some hackles, but not mine. They represent a curious mix of opera-ruffle tradition (the Queen and her minions), Enlightenment-era propriety (Sarastro's followers), girl-next-door innocence (Pamina), knight-in-shining-armor valor (Tamino), fascistic evil (Monostatos), and cartoon loopiness (Tamino's not-so-helpful aide Papageno, in T-shirt, clam-diggers, and baseball cap). Clothing makes the man; these costumes, however disparate, clarify the characters.

Lawrence Renes led a finely paced performance, extracting solid work from an orchestra that has not yet entirely gelled for the summer and showing an alert hand in setting a wayward moment aright: He conducted with authority. Two of the principal singers were familiar from the 2006 performances. Baritone Joshua Hopkins was a delight as affable Papageno, his voice full-toned, well centered, and nimble. Andrea Silvestrelli handled the role of Sarastro adeptly. His deep voice is attractive but unusual, its warm, buzzy quality evoking that of a bowed double bass. I wish he had taken his cavernous aria "In diesen heil'gen Hallen" a shade slower; I would have happily lingered longer over this humanistic credo.

The rest of the cast is new this year. Soprano Ekaterina Siurina (Pamina) and tenor Charles Castronovo (who are married) both proved to be high-quality Mozart singers. Castronovo's precisely etched, golden-toned phrases infused gracefulness with a heroic glint. Siurina may have cultivated a lighter than usual voice for this occasion, to charming and girlish effect. As a couple, they did indeed seem sprung from the pages of a fairy tale, and their respective high-point arias — "Dies Bildnis" for Tamino, "Ach, ich fühl's" for Pamina — conveyed sincerity through carefully honed artistry.

Soprano Erin Morley scored a success as the Queen of the Night, singing with coloratura precision and musicality, even if her high Fs took her to the very limit of her upper range; she even interpolated a bit of adept ornamentation. Many Magic Flute productions fail to invest much sense of relationship between the Queen and Pamina. Not so this one, in which their interactions bristle with mother-daughter dynamics. Tenor Timothy Oliver hewed to the long-standing tradition of rendering the evil Monostatos' music by barking and snarling. The Queen's Three Ladies (Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Audrey Walstrom, and Renée Tatum) were entirely praiseworthy, as were the airy-voiced Three Spirits (Sean Jahner, Trent Llewellyn, and Craig Short, dressed like baby Buddhist monks), and baritone Dale Travis was forthright as the Speaker.

All the singing is in German, but the connecting spoken portions are delivered in English condensations prepared by Albery, the director. We also have him to thank for an unorthodox touch in the staging of the finale: Sarastro, the beacon of truth and virtue, grants forgiveness to his nemesis the Queen and reconciles her to Pamina, thereby intensifying this opera's lesson about human goodness.

IF YOU GO

Mozart's The Magic Flute continues with performance dates of July 9 and 14, and Aug. 5, 10, 16, 23, and 27; some cast changes occur beginning Aug. 16. Call the Santa Fe Opera box office at 986-5900 for more information.