| Magic Flute Diaries | |
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| Directed by | Kevin Sullivan |
| Screenplay by | Kevin Sullivan |
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Running time | 104 min |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
Magic Flute Diaries is a film loosely inspired by Mozart's classic opera, The Magic Flute . The film was released in 2008 by Sullivan Entertainment. Magic Flute Diaries won the award for Best Family Film in the 2008 Staten Island Film Festival. [1]
Tom (Warren Christie), a young classical singer, reluctantly accepts the lead role in a production of The Magic Flute during Mozart's 250th birthday celebration in Salzburg at the urging of his girlfriend Sandy (Kelly Campbell). As rehearsals unfold, Tom is captivated by the magical power of Mozart's final opera. He is completely overcome with amazement at the musical genius that surrounds him. In an effort to visualize Mozart's fantasy, Tom imagines himself in the opera's story and drifts in and out of reality as if in a dream. Gradually he becomes completely enraptured by the intoxicating musical atmosphere swirling around him.
Tom's rapture is heightened further when he meets his mysterious co-star, Masha (Mireille Asselin), an unknown Russian soprano of astonishing talent. This extraordinary young singer is kept isolated from both the company and the press by her manager, Professor Nagel (Rutger Hauer). Tom becomes infatuated with Masha causing his relationship with Sandy to fall apart. Tom finds himself seduced as much by Mozart's music as by his bewitching co-star. Tom's concern for the girl, and his obsession to find out more about her mysterious past, becomes a quest that parallels the operatic fable actually being played out onstage.
Tom's strong feelings for Masha have left him unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Like his character in the opera, Tom wonders if he is being tested for a higher purpose but he knows he must play out his role in Masha's story until the final curtain.
The concept for a film inspired by Mozart's The Magic Flute emerged from a number of sources. Director, writer and producer of the film, Kevin Sullivan, became interested in the city of Salzburg after his daughter travelled there with her school orchestra to attend Mozart's 250th birthday celebrations. Sullivan was also inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical, The Woman in White , which used three-dimensional backdrops in its London production. Though Sullivan claims not to be an opera buff, he had always had a love for Mozart's The Magic Flute. [2]
Due to the impossibility (budget and time constraints) of filming on-location in Salzburg, Sullivan and a team travelled to Austria, Germany and Hungary, taking digital photographs of various churches, streetscapes, grand interiors and scenic backdrops. [3] Filmed in Toronto, shooting was completed in front of a green screen, allowing computer animators to remove the background and splice in digital photographs and images in postproduction. [4] Thom Best served as DOP, with special effects by Tony Willis. [5] Advanced mixers with live links to the live cameras allowed for the technicians to adjust background images in real time as the cameras rolled, giving a rough idea of what the finished product would look like. [4]
The Toronto opera company, Opera Atelier, partnered with Sullivan Entertainment for the production, providing costumes, crew and cast. [4] Opera Atelier co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Zingg were choreographers for dance numbers in the film. [5] Pynkoski also played the role of the opera director in the film. [4]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works of virtually every genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as among the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture".
The Magic Flute, K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder's theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, just two months before the composer's premature death. Still a staple of the opera repertory, its popularity was reflected by two immediate sequels, Peter Winter's Das Labyrinth oder Der Kampf mit den Elementen. Der Zauberflöte zweyter Theil (1798) and a fragmentary libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe titled The Magic Flute Part Two.
Emanuel Schikaneder was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, singer, and composer. He wrote the libretto of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute and was the builder of the Theater an der Wien. Peter Branscombe called him "one of the most talented theatre men of his era". Aside from Mozart, he worked with Salieri, Haydn and Beethoven.
Kevin Roderick Sullivan is a Canadian writer, director and producer of film and television programs.
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The Magic Flute (1791) is an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Other notable works with this title include:
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Mozart's birthplace was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at No. 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria. The Mozart family resided on the third floor from 1747 to 1773. Mozart himself was born here on 27 January 1756. He was the seventh child of Leopold Mozart, who was a musician of the Salzburg Royal Chamber.
The Magic Flute, an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, was composed in 1791 and premiered to great success. It has been an important part of the operatic repertory ever since, and has inspired a great number of sequels, adaptations, novels, films, artwork, and musical compositions.
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