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The Magic Flute (2006 film)
Encyclopedia
The Magic Flute is Kenneth Branagh
's English-language film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's singspiel
Die Zauberflöte
. The film is a co-production between France & the UK, produced by Idéale Audience and in association with UK's The Peter Moores Foundation.
In November 2005, it was announced that, as part of the 250th anniversary celebration of Mozart's birthday, a new film version of The Magic Flute, set during World War I
, was to be made, directed by Kenneth Branagh
, with a translation by Stephen Fry
. The film was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival
on September 7, 2006, at the Venice Film Festival
on September 8 of that year, and released in Switzerland on 5 April 2007. It has played in many European countries.
The film is the first motion picture version of the opera specifically intended for movie theatres. Ingmar Bergman
's 1975 film version was made for Swedish television and only later released to theatres. Branagh's version was shot in Super 35 and released in anamorphic widescreen, while Bergman's was filmed in Academy ratio
for television sets of the 1970's.
A DVD of the film was released in France in August 2007 with a bonus soundtrack CD (lasting around 79 minutes) and a "Making of" featurette (50 minutes). The film has also been released on DVD in the Netherlands (in a three-disc set), Finland, Argentina, and Japan.
received extremely harsh reviews in England but very favorable reviews in the U.S , where it premiered on HBO rather than in movie theatres.) However, Branagh's Magic Flute has, as of January 2011, never been released in the U.S. nor shown on U.S. television, despite the fact that such elaborately made operatic films as Franco Zeffirelli
's La Traviata
and Otello
, as well as Francesco Rosi
's Carmen, were released in the U.S. to theatres in the 1980's, received acclaim, and were later shown on U.S. cable TV. All three of these previous films were made in the opera's respective original languages, not in English as the Branagh Magic Flute was; nevertheless, they were given major theatrical releases in the U.S. much like the standard Hollywood film. The soundtrack album from the 2006 Magic Flute has also never been made available in the U.S. . Music critic Mark Swed, of the Los Angeles Times, who has seen the Dutch DVD of the film, blamed distributors for not being willing to release the film in the United States, and for not issuing either a Region 1 DVD or a region-free DVD release, thus making it impossible for most United States DVD player owners to see the film.
Variety
's Derek Elley, who saw the film at the Venice Film Festival, gave it a mixed review, but sacrificed much of his credibility by confusing the characters Sarastro (the wise and kindly enemy of the Queen of the Night) and Monostatos (his lecherous henchman, who tries to rape Pamina and eventually defects to the Queen's side).
Total Film
mistakenly blamed Mozart for the "silliness of the story", apparently forgetting that Mozart wrote only the music, not the libretto
(the libretto is by Emanuel Schikaneder
).
Ronald Bergan, in his online blog for the British newspaper The Guardian
criticized Elley and others for apparently not informing themselves more about the original opera before they began to write their reviews of the Branagh film.
for his work on The Magic Flute. Because the film has not played in Los Angeles yet, it still has not qualified for any Academy Awards.
setting, follows the structure of the original opera libretto very closely while stripping away all the Freemasonry references, and all of Mozart's music for the opera is retained in the film. Tamino is still sent by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina after Sarastro has apparently kidnapped her, as in the original. His sidekick is still the comical Papageno, a birdcatcher in the original opera, but a man who uses underground pigeons to check for poison gas in the Branagh film. As in the original work, spoken dialogue is interspersed with the arias, duets, and choruses. There are some other updates to the plot mirroring the WW I setting, though, as well as some changes. Tamino is menaced at the beginning, not by a dragon, but by poison gas; the Three Ladies who serve as attendants to the Queen of the Night are turned into hospital nurses, and the Queen herself is made more tragic and less purely evil (Upon climbing the wall of Sarastro's dwelling and seeing through the window that Tamino and Pamina have already been married, she commits suicide by deliberately letting herself fall after accidentally losing her footing). Sarastro in this version is a man in charge of a field hospital, not a high priest, and his ultimate wish is world peace, not simply the triumph of good over evil. (He is also Pamina's father, as in the 1975 Ingmar Bergman
film version of the opera, and the Queen of the Night is apparently his estranged ex-wife, although this is never directly stated.) Sarastro desperately tries to save the Queen's life before she falls, unlike the character in the original opera. And, just as in the Bergman film, Monostatos commits suicide at the end. Papageno does not wear a feather filled costume as in the original stage work, nor does his sweetheart Papagena, though the pair are frequently accompanied by birds - especially chickens - and their lines are filled with clever bird references. The "water trial" that Tamino must endure occurs when the trench that he and Pamina are in becomes flooded, and the trial of fire is a walk through a battlefield in which bombs are constantly exploding.
The comedy in The Magic Flute is retained faithfully in the film. As in the opera, the beautiful young Papagena pretends to be an old woman as part of one of the tests that Papageno must undergo before winning her, and, again as in the original work, the film audience sees her only as an old woman until near the end (except in a two-paged spread that Papageno reads). However, because this is possible on film, the old Papagena is played by a genuine elderly woman (Liz Smith
in a non-singing role), not by soprano Silvia Moi, who plays the young Papagena, while in stage versions of the opera, both characters are always played by the same singer, who, as the old woman, either covers her face and speaks with a cackle, or dons an "old woman" mask which she conveniently throws off when she turns into the young version of herself.
The film completely removes all the sexist references from the original opera libretto and plays down the so-called "racist" aspects. The black Monostatos is still a villain and would-be rapist, but nowhere in the film is it implied that this has anything to do with his race. In one aria, Monostatos broods that Pamina may not want him for a lover because of his race, much as Othello
does in Shakespeare's play
when he broods over whether or not Desdemona has been unfaithful.
over casting choices, but it was Branagh who had the final say, preferring to cast singers who "looked the part" even if they were relatively unknown, rather than choosing well-known operatic stars who were physically unsuitable. (René Pape, who has sung and acted the role of Sarastro in several productions of the opera onstage, is the best-known singer in the entire film.) Branagh also expressed a wish not to cast non-singing actors and have their voices dubbed by opera singers, probably because he felt that seemed too artificial.
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
's English-language film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's singspiel
Singspiel
A Singspiel is a form of German-language music drama, now regarded as a genre of opera...
Die Zauberflöte
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
. The film is a co-production between France & the UK, produced by Idéale Audience and in association with UK's The Peter Moores Foundation.
In November 2005, it was announced that, as part of the 250th anniversary celebration of Mozart's birthday, a new film version of The Magic Flute, set during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, was to be made, directed by Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
, with a translation by Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
. The film was presented at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
on September 7, 2006, at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
on September 8 of that year, and released in Switzerland on 5 April 2007. It has played in many European countries.
The film is the first motion picture version of the opera specifically intended for movie theatres. Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's 1975 film version was made for Swedish television and only later released to theatres. Branagh's version was shot in Super 35 and released in anamorphic widescreen, while Bergman's was filmed in Academy ratio
Academy ratio
The Academy ratio of 1.375:1 is an aspect ratio of a frame of 35mm film when used with 4-perf pulldown. It was standardized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as the standard film aspect ratio in 1932, although similar-sized ratios were used as early as 1928.The Academy ratio is...
for television sets of the 1970's.
A DVD of the film was released in France in August 2007 with a bonus soundtrack CD (lasting around 79 minutes) and a "Making of" featurette (50 minutes). The film has also been released on DVD in the Netherlands (in a three-disc set), Finland, Argentina, and Japan.
Theatrical release and critical reception
The film has mostly received unusually good reviews in Europe for a Branagh film - his films generally receive better reviews in the U.S. .(Branagh's 2006 film version of Shakepeare's "As You Like It"As You Like It (2006 film)
As You Like It is a 2006 film directed by Kenneth Branagh. It is based on the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare. The play's setting is relocated from medieval France to a European colony in late 19th century Japan after the Meiji Restoration. It was shot at Shepperton Film Studios and on...
received extremely harsh reviews in England but very favorable reviews in the U.S , where it premiered on HBO rather than in movie theatres.) However, Branagh's Magic Flute has, as of January 2011, never been released in the U.S. nor shown on U.S. television, despite the fact that such elaborately made operatic films as Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
's La Traviata
La Traviata (1983 film)
La Traviata is a 1982 Italian film written, designed, and directed by Franco Zeffirelli. It is based on the 1853 opera of the same name with music by Giuseppe Verdi and libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. The film actually premiered in Italy in 1982, then went into general release there in 1983. It...
and Otello
Otello (1986 film)
Otello is a 1986 film based on the Giuseppe Verdi opera of the same name based on the Shakespeare play Othello. The film was directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starred Plácido Domingo in the title role, Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona and Justino Díaz as Iago...
, as well as Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi
Francesco Rosi is an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi.-Biography:After studying Law, but hoping to study film, Rosi entered the industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema...
's Carmen, were released in the U.S. to theatres in the 1980's, received acclaim, and were later shown on U.S. cable TV. All three of these previous films were made in the opera's respective original languages, not in English as the Branagh Magic Flute was; nevertheless, they were given major theatrical releases in the U.S. much like the standard Hollywood film. The soundtrack album from the 2006 Magic Flute has also never been made available in the U.S. . Music critic Mark Swed, of the Los Angeles Times, who has seen the Dutch DVD of the film, blamed distributors for not being willing to release the film in the United States, and for not issuing either a Region 1 DVD or a region-free DVD release, thus making it impossible for most United States DVD player owners to see the film.
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
's Derek Elley, who saw the film at the Venice Film Festival, gave it a mixed review, but sacrificed much of his credibility by confusing the characters Sarastro (the wise and kindly enemy of the Queen of the Night) and Monostatos (his lecherous henchman, who tries to rape Pamina and eventually defects to the Queen's side).
Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
mistakenly blamed Mozart for the "silliness of the story", apparently forgetting that Mozart wrote only the music, not the libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
(the libretto is by Emanuel Schikaneder
Emanuel Schikaneder
Emanuel Schikaneder , born Johann Joseph Schickeneder, was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, singer and composer. He was the librettist of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute and the builder of the Theater an der Wien...
).
Ronald Bergan, in his online blog for the British newspaper The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
criticized Elley and others for apparently not informing themselves more about the original opera before they began to write their reviews of the Branagh film.
Awards
in 2009, three years after the release of the film, Roger Lanser, who has photographed several other Kenneth Branagh-directed films, received a Cinematographer of the Year Award from the Australian Cinematographers SocietyAustralian Cinematographers Society
The Australian Cinematographers Society is an Australian organisation established in 1958 for cinematographers to meet and discuss the issues that affected them...
for his work on The Magic Flute. Because the film has not played in Los Angeles yet, it still has not qualified for any Academy Awards.
Budget and Box Office
The film, made on an estimated budget of $27,000,000, has so far grossed a total of $1,954,337.Updates and Changes to the Plot
The story, which has been updated to a World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
setting, follows the structure of the original opera libretto very closely while stripping away all the Freemasonry references, and all of Mozart's music for the opera is retained in the film. Tamino is still sent by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina after Sarastro has apparently kidnapped her, as in the original. His sidekick is still the comical Papageno, a birdcatcher in the original opera, but a man who uses underground pigeons to check for poison gas in the Branagh film. As in the original work, spoken dialogue is interspersed with the arias, duets, and choruses. There are some other updates to the plot mirroring the WW I setting, though, as well as some changes. Tamino is menaced at the beginning, not by a dragon, but by poison gas; the Three Ladies who serve as attendants to the Queen of the Night are turned into hospital nurses, and the Queen herself is made more tragic and less purely evil (Upon climbing the wall of Sarastro's dwelling and seeing through the window that Tamino and Pamina have already been married, she commits suicide by deliberately letting herself fall after accidentally losing her footing). Sarastro in this version is a man in charge of a field hospital, not a high priest, and his ultimate wish is world peace, not simply the triumph of good over evil. (He is also Pamina's father, as in the 1975 Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
film version of the opera, and the Queen of the Night is apparently his estranged ex-wife, although this is never directly stated.) Sarastro desperately tries to save the Queen's life before she falls, unlike the character in the original opera. And, just as in the Bergman film, Monostatos commits suicide at the end. Papageno does not wear a feather filled costume as in the original stage work, nor does his sweetheart Papagena, though the pair are frequently accompanied by birds - especially chickens - and their lines are filled with clever bird references. The "water trial" that Tamino must endure occurs when the trench that he and Pamina are in becomes flooded, and the trial of fire is a walk through a battlefield in which bombs are constantly exploding.
The comedy in The Magic Flute is retained faithfully in the film. As in the opera, the beautiful young Papagena pretends to be an old woman as part of one of the tests that Papageno must undergo before winning her, and, again as in the original work, the film audience sees her only as an old woman until near the end (except in a two-paged spread that Papageno reads). However, because this is possible on film, the old Papagena is played by a genuine elderly woman (Liz Smith
Liz Smith (actress)
Liz Smith, MBE is a British actress, best-known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
in a non-singing role), not by soprano Silvia Moi, who plays the young Papagena, while in stage versions of the opera, both characters are always played by the same singer, who, as the old woman, either covers her face and speaks with a cackle, or dons an "old woman" mask which she conveniently throws off when she turns into the young version of herself.
The film completely removes all the sexist references from the original opera libretto and plays down the so-called "racist" aspects. The black Monostatos is still a villain and would-be rapist, but nowhere in the film is it implied that this has anything to do with his race. In one aria, Monostatos broods that Pamina may not want him for a lover because of his race, much as Othello
Othello (character)
Othello is a character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's origin is traced to the tale, "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi by Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio. There, he is simply referred to as the Moor....
does in Shakespeare's play
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
when he broods over whether or not Desdemona has been unfaithful.
Casting
Almost the entire cast is made up of classically trained singer-actors with operatic voices. Branagh consulted with conductor James ConlonJames Conlon
James Conlon is an American conductor and the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera.-Early years:Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street in Douglaston, Queens, New York. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New...
over casting choices, but it was Branagh who had the final say, preferring to cast singers who "looked the part" even if they were relatively unknown, rather than choosing well-known operatic stars who were physically unsuitable. (René Pape, who has sung and acted the role of Sarastro in several productions of the opera onstage, is the best-known singer in the entire film.) Branagh also expressed a wish not to cast non-singing actors and have their voices dubbed by opera singers, probably because he felt that seemed too artificial.
Cast
- Joseph KaiserJoseph KaiserJoseph Kaiser is a Canadian operatic tenor. In 2005 he won 2nd prize in Placido Domingo's Operalia International Opera Competition. He has performed as a soloist with the New York Metropolitan Opera, making his debut in 2007....
as Tamino - Benjamin Jay Davis as Papageno
- Amy Carson as Pamina
- René PapeRené PapeRené Pape is a German opera singer, a bass.-Biography:Rene Pape was born in Dresden, then part of East Germany. His mother is a hairdresser and his father a chef. His parents divorced when he was two years old and he sometimes lived with his grandmother, who opened the way for his interest in music...
as Sarastro - Lyubov Petrova as Queen of the NightQueen of the Night-Botany:* Queen of the night, Nightblooming cereus, several genera and species of cactus* Queen of the night, Cestrum nocturnum, a woody evergreen commonly known as Night-blooming Cestrum-Music:...
- Tom Randle as Monostatos
- Silvia Moi as Papagena
- Liz SmithLiz Smith (actress)Liz Smith, MBE is a British actress, best-known for her roles in the sitcoms The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She also appeared in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.-Early life:...
as Old Papagena - Teuta Koco, Louise Callinan, Kim-Marie Woodhouse as The Three Ladies
- William Dutton, Luke Lampard and Jamie Manton as The Three Boys