Event

THE MAGIC FLUTE

Sunday, December 28
Bagel Brunch at 10am Film at 11am
Followed by Discussion with CAC Co-Director Vic Skolnick

Additional screening - Monday, December 29 at 7:30pm

Ingmar Bergmans film version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts opera is a warm glowing movie that is a rare instance of two artists who, across the barriers of time, have created a work of incomparable beauty. The film radiates with the immense respect and love that Bergman feels for the music and ideas behind Mozarts timeless masterpiece. Like Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, composed late in Mozarts life, was intended as a popular for the Viennese audience; it uses the traditions of Songspiel, a German form of comic opera that employs large doses of low comedy, elaborate stage machinery, and music hall patter. Mozart embraced the form and created one of the great operas of all time. The fairy tale plot has the handsome Prince Tamino set off in search of the beautiful Princess Pamina at the behest of her mother, the Queen of the Night. His companion is Papageno, a bird catcher and boyish buffoon, who supplies the low comedy. Pamina is being held captive by her father, the magician Sarastro. However, nothing is as it seems, and Tamino finds himself on a far different quest than he originally envisioned. Although the story can be enjoyed as a simple fairy tale adventure by children and adults of all ages, Bergman also teases out the deep complexities that Mozart wove into this marvelously rich and entertaining work.

Sweden, 1975, 135 min., color