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Mozart: Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) / Ingmar Bergman [Criterion Collection ~ 1975]

Language: Swedish | Subtitle: English

Genre: Opera

Ingmar Bergman's vision of The Magic Flute (sung here in Swedish) remains one of the indisputable classics in the opera-as-film catalog, its charm and enchantment undiminished since the film's initial release in the 1970s. This is a case not of competition between two geniuses (and two media) but of affirmative, graceful, and enlightening synergy. Instead of simply filming a staged run-through of the opera, Bergman chooses to play with the framework around such a performance (given in Stockholm's elegant Drottningholm Theatre)--and he moreover rearranges the order of the scenes in the final act. Intermittent shots of audience reactions--including those of a young girl infectiously involved in the story--and sudden, psychologically probing close-up angles result in a richly textured, multilayered effect.

Certainly Bergman renders the fairy-tale aspects of Mozart's mise-en-scène with such buoyant detail that the film makes an excellent entrée 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 Håkan Hagegård's utterly disarming, still-fresh portrayal of Papageno).

Bergman puts his indelible stamp on Mozart’s exquisite opera in this sublime rendering of one of the composer’s best-loved works: a celebration of love, forgiveness, and the brotherhood of man. The Magic Flute (Trollflöjten) stars Josef Köstlinger as Tamino, the young man determined to rescue a beautiful princess from the clutches of parental evil. Criterion’s edition features the film’s glorious soundtrack in the original stereo format.

THE CAST:

Tamino - Josef Köstlinger

Pamina - Irma Urrila

Papageno - Håkan Hagegård

Papagena - Elisabeth Eriksson

Sarastro - Ulrik Cold

Queen of the Night - Birgit Nordin

Monostatos - Ragnar Ulfung

Talaren, the Speaker - Erik Saedén

Three Ladies - Britt-Marie Aruhn, Birgitta Smiding, Kirsten Vaupel

Priests - Gösta Prüzelius, Ulf Johanson

Three boys - Urban Marlmberg, Ansgar Krook, Erland von Heijne

Guards - Hans Johansson, Jerker Arvidsson

Works on This Recording

1. Die Zauberflöte, K 620 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Performer: Håkan Hagegård (Baritone), Ragnar Ulfung (Tenor), Birgit Nordin (Soprano),

Irma Urrila (Soprano), Ulrik Cold (Bass), Elisabeth Eriksson (Soprano),

Josef Köstlinger (Tenor)

Conductor: Eric Ericson

Orchestra/Ensemble: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Period: Classical

Written: 1791; Vienna, Austria

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