The Magic Flute of Sweden

My 5 year old daughter has been singing for 6 hours straight now and this movie is the reason why. Ingmar Bergman's "Trollflojten" (please umlaut the o) is often described as the best film ever made of an opera. It's style of filmmaking doesn't seem as revolutionary now as it did in 1975, and the hairstyles are a little dated- and let's not mention the Swedish just yet- but still this is an enchanting film even for those who wouldn't normally consider themselves opera fans.

A little background: The Magic Flute, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is a Singspiel- literally "sing play". We now call it light opera and it is often performed by the same companies that do Guilbert and Sullivan, as well as the companies that do Wagner and Verdi (and of course, those that do both!). The Magic Flute is still performed today because it contains some of the loveliest music ever written, including one of the most perfect melodic lines in musical history: listen for the passage that translates into English as "three spirits young and wise will guide you..." In this film, the three spirits are young boys who descend in a hot air balloon.

Normally, when you go to the opera, you need to know the plot in advance so that you can follow it during the show. Because of the director, Ingmar Bergman's skill, the actors let you know exactly what they are thinking and saying by virtue of their acting - and the close-ups certainly help.

If you don't know the story and want to know before watching, I'll give you an overview. If you want to experience the plot the way that Bergman wants you to, then skip this paragraph. Two young men, a prince and a fowler (bird hunter), are wandering through the woods. The prince is about to be attacked by a dragon. He is saved by 3 lovely valkyrie-esque ladies who are handy with their spears (I played one of these ladies in college opera workshop, so I like them). The prince faints, then wakens to see the fowler, the irrepressible Papageno, and believes that the man saved him. This is only the first of Papageno's mistakes, as the 3 ladies impress upon him. They tell the prince of their mistress' daughter who has been kidnapped by an evil sorceror. However, the prince, Tamino, will soon learn that the ladies are not exactly reliable sources. They do, however, present him with a portrait of the princess Pamina, which he instantly adores, and a magic flute, as well as magic bells for Papageno. Three spirits come to guide Tamino and Papageno to the sorcerer's temple in order that they may find their loves, Pamina and the oft elusive Papagena. The Queen of the Night, ruler of the 3 ladies and a similar host of black clad ladies of the air (they aren't really valkyries as you will see), mother of Pamina, makes several appearances and does her best to both scare everyone and shatter lots of glass. There is also a wicked Moor with his own racist plotline and lots of sexist comments by Sarastro the Sorcerer about why the Queen of the Night, as an ambitious woman, is going straight to hell. I have seen other versions of this work in which the lines about the color of the Moor's face are taken out of the subtitles but sung (one featured a caucasian man as the Moor and an African-American woman, Kathleen Battle, as Pamina). In this version, the lyrics are visible in the subtitles, so kids might ask about it. Also, the Moor and a young servant boy are both wearing lots of orange makeup. Even with a five year old, I had to do some explaining about why the Queen was bad and the supposedly evil sorcerer good, even though he abducted his daughter and exposed her to the potential abuses of the Moor. There is a lot more that can be said about the opera, I'm mainly writing about this movie version rather than the opera itself.

Is this movie suitable for kids? I think so. Many operas are not. There are two half-heartedly attempted suicides, which are fortunately prevented. One is humorous, as Papageno tries to induce audience members to marry him while procrastinating about hanging himself. "There is still time- I'll count to 3- lovely ladies think of me." More disturbing is the scene where the Moor, Monostatos, paws Pamina while she is sleeping. Ragnar Ulfung manages to make Monostatos appear obscene when he is merely looking at Pamina. The trial scenes, when Tamino and Pamina travel through fire and water to prove their love and virtue, are filled with nearly naked modern dancers who writhe as the fire and undulate as the waves. They are wearing body stockings and it is not particularly graphic, although your kid may shout "hey they're naked." The Queen of the Night and her retinue meet bad ends, but they just appear to fall into darkness. Monostatos stabs himself with the dagger meant for Sarostro, and with which Pamina nearly kills herself. That's pretty good for opera, when all is said and done. No one's mother is burnt at the stake, and no one flings herself out of a window, and no one is murdered by her jealous boyfriend.

What about the singing? Well, it is rather odd to hear it sung in Swedish, when you are used to the original German or the English translations, which are cheesy but fun to learn. I wasn't absolutely sure it was Swedish until I heard Papageno counting to 3, but I knew it wasn't German! Of course, you can guess it is Swedish by the director. The best voice in the cast belongs to Haken Hagegard as Papageno. As "everyman" in the story, Papageno has to engage the audience, and Haken does in every way. His baritone is a delight and his facial and body expression are perfect and hilarious. We understand him immediately- a man of simple pleasures who seeks only his Papagena. Speaking of Papagena, she has too little time on screen. She's funny, and her crystal voice is perfect for the little bird-woman. Birgit Nordin commands my respect as Queen of the Night, for her devastating high notes. They are not always perfect, but they come pretty close, and that's rare in the Queen's incredibly demanding aria. Irma Urrila's voice is almost as beautiful as her face as Pamina. Josef Kostlinger is a fine Tamino, but his facial beauty clearly outweighs his vocal ability. He looks like a young Norse god. One of the most beautiful duets in the opera, first sung by Pamina and Papageno and then reprised by Tamino and Pamina (on the exquisite and heavenly joy of marriage) is here only sung by Pamina and the vocally dominant Papageno. Ulrik Cold's bass voice gives a great weight of authority to his Sarostro. He has warmth and depth in his tones, which is sometimes missing from basses.

The direction is truly inspired in this film. We begin with the overture, usually the boring part, but Bergman uses this time to show us the audience, inside the 18th century court theater, in all its modern diversity in ethnicity and dress. They don't smile for the camera either. Some look bored, some look thoughtful, some look like they are happily anticipating the show- especially one little girl, Helene Friburg, whose reactions we see throughout the show. The idea that I got from it is that no matter what the limitations of the original plot, the music transcends time and space- ironically this is part of the original plot too! The film begins by showing a conventional stage show of the opera and swiftly moves to a huge landscape that cannot be contained within the theater, yet somehow still seems to be.