Mozart - The Magic Flute

List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $1.19
You Save: $28.76 (96%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.15 (click here)
Category: VHS Video
See more movie releases

VHS Tape Cover Information

VHS Movie Reviews of Mozart - The Magic Flute

Movie Review: Magical
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of Mozart - The Magic Flute

Certainly Bergman renders the fairy-tale aspects of Mozart's mise-en-sc?ne with such buoyant detail that the film makes an excellent entr?e both for youngsters and for anyone who is uneasy about how to approach an opera. Yet there is much food for thought to be savored by the already initiated as well. One of Bergman's more brilliant interventions is to depict Sarastro and the Queen of the Night as a divorced couple engaged in a bitter battle over daughter Pamina. The director supplies plenty of energetic wit and arabesques of allusion (in addition to his Prospero-like demeanor, the high priest Sarastro is shown at one point during the intermission perusing the score of Parsifal), and--as might be expected of one of film's greatest symbolists--teases out the opera's weightier allegorical levels with hauntingly beautiful effect. Brilliant chiaroscuro and contrasted lighting patterns, for example, offer ongoing visual commentary on the contest between darkness and light. The cast is exceptionally photogenic, their abundant youth and obvious chemistry more than compensating for the often no-more-than-mediocre vocal performances (with the exception of H?kan Hageg?rd's utterly disarming, still-fresh portrayal of Papageno). For a desert-island audio recording, try Thomas Beecham. --Thomas May

Art House & International VHS Video

• Musicals & Performing Arts
• Science Fiction & Fantasy