The Magic Flute (1975 film)
| The Magic Flute | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Ingmar Bergman |
| Produced by | Måns Reuterswärd |
| Written by |
Emanuel Schikaneder Alf Henrikson Ingmar Bergman |
| Starring | Josef Köstlinger Irma Urrila Håkan Hagegård Ulrik Cold |
| Music by | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |
| Cinematography | Sven Nykvist |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by |
Sveriges Radio/TV2/AB Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden) Gaumont (France) Surrogate Films (US, former) Janus Films/Criterion Collection (US, current) |
|
Release date
|
1 January 1975 |
|
Running time
|
135 min |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
The Magic Flute (Swedish: Trollflöjten) is Ingmar Bergman's 1975 film version of Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. It was intended as a television production and was first shown on Swedish television on 1 January 1975, but was followed by a cinema release later that year. The work is widely viewed as one of the most successful films of an opera ever made, and as an unusual item in the director's oeuvre.
Although Bergman carried out the project in his mid-50s, it was rooted in his youth. He first saw The Magic Flute at the in Stockholm when he was 12 and hoped then to recreate it in his marionette theatre at home; he could not do so because he couldn't afford the cost of a recording. Also while still a child, he serendipitously discovered the Baroque theater that served as the inspiration for his much-later production:
As a boy I loved roam around. One October day I set out for Drottningholm (in Stockholm) to see its unique court theater from the eighteenth century. For some reason the stage door was unlocked. I walked inside and saw for the first time the carefully restored baroque theater. I remember distinctly what a bewitching experience it was: the effect of chiaroscuro, the silence, the stage. In my imagination I have always seen The Magic Flute living inside that old theater, in that keenly acoustical wooden box, with its slanted stage floor, its backdrops and wings. Here lies the noble, magical illusion of theater. Nothing is; everything represents. The moment the curtain is raised, an agreement between stage and audience manifest itself. And now, together, we'll create! In other words, it is obvious that the drama of The Magic Flute should unfold in a baroque theater.
At one stage Bergman had hoped to direct a production at the Malmö City Theater. The origin of his filmed version was in the 1960s, when Magnus Enhörning, head of the Swedish Radio, asked him for possible projects and he replied "I want to do The Magic Flute for television". Enhörning readily agreed and supported the project without hesitation.
The German-language libretto (sung text) of The Magic Flute was the work of Mozart's collaborator Emanuel Schikaneder, who was also theatre manager and sang Papageno at the first performances in 1791. For the plot, see The Magic Flute, and for details of the libretto see Libretto of the Magic Flute.
...
Wikipedia