Imagine a world in which sweet strains of music transform the most evil of creatures into peaceful, joyously waltzing spirits, and where the goodness of love does, in fact, win out over badness every time. Mozart imagined such a world in his heroic opera “The Magic Flute,” performed last night by the Minnesota Opera Company at the Maine Center for the Arts. A cross between the magic of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia,” the wonderland of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and the straightforward jokes of a new vaudevillian comedy routine, this touring production was performed by a talented cast of singers who brought sterling honesty and sparkling youth to a musical event that already had the charm and finesse of the musical master.

Though not as rich and spacious as a resident show might be, and a shade slower musically than usual, the touring “Magic Flute” had a certain freshness about it that made the evening completely enjoyable. The spit-polished company was lively and blithe, as if they truly believed in the romantic notions of the music they sang. “How I love the word love,” the kidnapped Pamina told the audience when she learned that the prince Tamino was en route to her rescue. The cast seemed just as infatuated with the words and music they presented, too.

Despite the central love story of Tamino and Pamina, and the pains they must endure before they are worthy of love, the most interesting — and to last night’s audience, the most popular — character, is Papageno, the bumbling, appetite-ruled bird catcher. Actor/baritone Bradley Greenwald, who took flight in the role, kept the audience in stitches with his slapstick humor. Whether tripping over a set piece, dropping his trousers, or scaring himself in the mirror, Greenwald made cliched stage tricks seem new again. He also brought a contemporary flavor to the show as he stepped completely out of Mozartian time and filled in performance space by whistling a bar of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” or mumbling more modern idioms under his breath.

Musical director Joseph Illick and stage director Eric Simonson have carefully fashioned a good-humored and gleeful night of opera with this production. The result was an effervescent, vibrant, and spendidly successful show that offered everyone a glimpse at a world beautifully transformed by music.