I have mixed feelings about this film some of which include a great deal of irritation. Let's deal with the opera first: the libretto by Mozart's fellow Mason, Schikaneder, is not in the same league with those of Mozart's most famous librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte (Cosi Fan Tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni.). In fact, it's downright silly in places, even allowing for the Masonic symbolism. By present-day standards, it is also quite sexist. Sarastro has abducted Pamina from her mother "The Queen of the Night" and tells her she should not be under her mother's influence but she "needs a man to guide her." (Tamino.) It is also racist: Monostatos, one of the villains, is a Moor. But we cannot expect an eighteenth century opera to be "politically correct".
Of course, this opera also contains some of Mozart's (or anyone's for that matter) noblest music generally sung by Sarastro or his priests. But, due to the libretto, I find the opera a less satisfactory experience as a whole than the more realistic Da Ponte ones. (The "Flute", of course, is related to the German Singspiel with spoken dialog and is not an Italian opera with recitative.)
The cast of this production is largely unfamiliar to Americans except for Håkan Hagegård, the excellent Papageno but Josef Köstlinger was also excellent as Tamino. The singing is not uniformly excellent, though, and the familiar problem of who should sing "The Queen of the Night" is not solved here. Birgit Norden, who plays the part, has too light a voice which should really be that of a dramatic coloratura. She generally gets the coloratura passages but is less successful in the longer notes which often sound shrill to me. (Mozart wrote these parts for specific singers; in this case it was one Josepha Hofer. He often changed arias when the singer changed.) Maybe her acting is also too "Lady Dracula" for me and might be more of a cold-blooded you-know-what. The Sarastro (Ulrik Cold) also seems to have a bit too light a voice for the part. And the production seems more than a little creaky though I think the Swedish translation doesn't help.
The overture is played while the camera shows the utterly rapt faces of the audience especially the beatific one of a little girl and I find this particularly tedious after a while. In real life, audiences, particularly children, tend to talk or fidget through an overture, I think. The dragon (originally a snake.) which pursues Tamino at the beginning is really more funny than terrifying and makes Tamino seem like a crybaby.
The later scenes I thought were generally better and dramatically more convincing. Although I agree that Bergman is probably the greatest living film director (his newest film "Saraband", from 2003, has been getting rave reviews.), I think this film has probably been rather overrated.
Of course, this opera also contains some of Mozart's (or anyone's for that matter) noblest music generally sung by Sarastro or his priests. But, due to the libretto, I find the opera a less satisfactory experience as a whole than the more realistic Da Ponte ones. (The "Flute", of course, is related to the German Singspiel with spoken dialog and is not an Italian opera with recitative.)
The cast of this production is largely unfamiliar to Americans except for Håkan Hagegård, the excellent Papageno but Josef Köstlinger was also excellent as Tamino. The singing is not uniformly excellent, though, and the familiar problem of who should sing "The Queen of the Night" is not solved here. Birgit Norden, who plays the part, has too light a voice which should really be that of a dramatic coloratura. She generally gets the coloratura passages but is less successful in the longer notes which often sound shrill to me. (Mozart wrote these parts for specific singers; in this case it was one Josepha Hofer. He often changed arias when the singer changed.) Maybe her acting is also too "Lady Dracula" for me and might be more of a cold-blooded you-know-what. The Sarastro (Ulrik Cold) also seems to have a bit too light a voice for the part. And the production seems more than a little creaky though I think the Swedish translation doesn't help.
The overture is played while the camera shows the utterly rapt faces of the audience especially the beatific one of a little girl and I find this particularly tedious after a while. In real life, audiences, particularly children, tend to talk or fidget through an overture, I think. The dragon (originally a snake.) which pursues Tamino at the beginning is really more funny than terrifying and makes Tamino seem like a crybaby.
The later scenes I thought were generally better and dramatically more convincing. Although I agree that Bergman is probably the greatest living film director (his newest film "Saraband", from 2003, has been getting rave reviews.), I think this film has probably been rather overrated.