The Magic Flute

Mozart's classic reworked as an anti-war movie
Kenneth Branagh and Stephen Fry have reworked Mozart's strange but beautiful comic opera "The Magic Flute" as an anti-war story set in the first world war. The music and acting are brilliant: aspects of the revised story are very peculiar (though no more so than the original) but in general it is both beautiful and entertaining.

In the original story, the hero Tamino (Joseph Kaiser) is a prince: here he is a junior officer in the army of some unidentified European power, and at the start of the film he and his men are sent "over the top" in an attack on the enemy trenches.

Where the 18th century opera had the hero attacked by a serpent and rescued by three ladies, in this version the ladies (Teuta Koco, Louise Callinan, and Kim-Marie Woodhouse) appear, initially, as nurses and rescue him from a cloud of poison gas. Recovering consciousness, he finds himself in a slightly different World War One trench system, where he meets the "bird man" Papageno (brilliantly...

A Film That Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Would Be Proud Of. Kenneth Branagh Has Triumphed Once Again.
Based on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's final opera, "Die Zauberflote," renowned actor-writer-director Kenneth Branagh's film is a visual wonder and a musical triumph in every sense of the words.Sadly, this beautiful movie is not available in Region 1, but it should be seen everywhere, and appreciated. For me, it off-sets the semi-disappointment I feel of his remake of "Sleuth." The acting, cinematography and everything else was top-notch. I highly recommend this movie, and would rate it PG for mild violence, both war-related and comic. I have a feeling that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would be proud of this film version of one of his most popular operas.

Wonderful reimagining
The art direction and cinematography are great. But what's really exciting is the emotional depth(lacking in the original fairy-tale libretto) that's added by reimagining the setting as the battlefields of World War I. The libretto is translated (perfectly appropriate for Mozart, who authorized both Italian and German versions of Marriage of Figaro), and the new English lyrics revitalize the story without straying too far from the original. I'm not sure this would be a good introduction to the opera, but if you know it already, each new twist is a delight.
The singing is lovely. It's not world-class opera quality, but it's more than adequate for what this is, which is a great movie rather than a visual record of a great performance.

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