Movies - The Magic Flute

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	Movies - The Magic Flute

For the opera by Mozart, see Die Zauberflöte.

The Magic Flute is the English title for Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. Various works were made based on it:

It is one of the most frequently performed German language operas, and the libretto has also been translated for performance in numerous other languages.

Film Versions

The Magic Flute (sv: Trollflöjten) is Ingmar Bergman's 1975 highly acclaimed film version.

Production Credits: Director and Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman; Photography: Sven Nykvist; Sound: Helmut Muhle; Musical Director and Conductor: Eric Ericson with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Art Direction: Henny Noremark; Editing: Siv Lundgren; Costumes: Karin Erskine.

Cast (in order of appearance): Josef Köstlinger (Tamino); Britt-Marie Aruhn; Birgitta Smiding; Kirsten Vaupel (Three Ladies); Håkan Hagegård (Papageno); Birgit Nordin (Queen of the Night); Irma Urrila (Pamina); Ragnar Ulfung (Monostatos); Ulrik Cold (Sarastro); and Elisabeth Erikson (Papagena). Bergman himself appears briefly in audience shots, as does Sven Nykvist, the cinematographer.

The sound was not actually recorded in synch with the photography. The singers pre-recorded their parts and then lip-synced to the music which was played back as they performed.

Bergman daringly made a major change in the plot: Sarastro is Pamina's father, and has a good claim, morally and legally, to her custody, while The Three Boys introduce themselves, instead of being introduced by the Queen's Three Ladies. Thus, in Bergman's version it is obvious from the first that the Three Boys are not in the Queen's service.

According to film historian Peter Cowie’s notes for the DVD release of the film, Bergman wanted to recreate as closely as possible the original 1791 production in the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna. He had hoped that the film could be shot in the historic Drottningholm Palace Theatre and introductory exterior shots in the film set the scene at there. However, “the scenery was considered too fragile to accommodate a film crew. So the stage – complete with wings, curtains, and wind machines – was painstakingly copied and erected in the studios of the Swedish Film Institute”.

As the overture begins, a close-up shot of a young girl's face fills the screen. Gradually this gives way to close-ups of a multitude of faces of the audience - faces of all races, ages, classes, and the swift editing reflects the rhythms of the music. But also, the young girl (maybe 12 years old?) from the overture re-appears frequently, cut into the action on stage to provide reaction to those events. Her facial expressions often express the mood of the music as it moves from lighter to darker. Clearly, Bergman is involving his audience in the action and never wants us to forget that there is an audience present.

So, throughout the film, we are never far from the illusion of being in the theatre, of being part of a theatrical event, and yet Bergman strives to make the opera into a distinctly cinematic event rather than just a record of a stage performance.

Shot originally for Swedish television, there is an emphasis on close-ups of the singers, but the mechanics of cinema also allow for manipulations of time and space. For example, prior to Papageno’s entry, there is a cut to the singer backstage in his dressing room. Suddenly, to be ready for his cue, he jumps up and rushes to the wings where he plays the appropriate chord on his pipe, is then helped into his birdcage by a stagehand, and finally makes the appropriate entrance to find Tamino. Later, as Tamino looks at the locket containing Pamina’s picture, she comes alive inside the locket with the ominous face of Monastatos glimpsed over her shoulder, foreshadowing a possible problem. Equally cinematic are the obvious “real” scenes taking place in the snow, which could not be realistically created on stage.

As scenes change, so the mechanics of the theatre reveal themselves; day turns to night as the Queen of the Night arrives and, from the point of view of an audience member, we witness the shifting backcloths moving to create the new scene. Similarly, when Papagena and Papageno joyously discover each other in a winter landscape, the chiming of the magic bells theatrically turns the scenery from Winter into Spring while the two characters remove portions of each other’s winter garments.

In contrast, throughout the actual performance and during the intermission, we get backstage views of the theatre. Tamino plays his flute while, through the wings, we catch sight of Papagena and Pamina for, at this stage in the plot, they have not yet met. The opposite happens when Pamina and Papageno are on stage and, this time, it is Tamino who is seen sitting on a ladder in the wings. During the intermission, Sarastro’s men gather on the stage chatting. Sarastro himself sits reading the score of ‘’Parsifal’’ while the camera pans to one of Monastatos’ henchmen reading a comic book. Pamina and Tamino play chess in the dressing room. The Queen of the Night smokes a cigarette. Finally, as the curtain is about to rise for Act 2, a character peers through a low peephole in the curtain and he is joined by Sarastro who peeps through a higher one. Throughout, we are constantly reminded of the mechanics of the “show” we are witnessing.

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