Il flauto magico

Sometimes it's hard to find a production that has a little something for everyone. This movie does. I am a fan of and sang opera professionally in my younger days (I'm over 70) I know the Magic Flute well. When I saw that this was being released, I had trepidations, I'll admit. However, I was delighted by the way this was handled. It's a little bit Harry Potter, a little C. S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), and a lot of Mozart. Except for two professional opera singers (Queen of the Night and Sarastro), the other singing members of the cast did not have the power in their voices to raise them to opera strength. Actually, the times that I have done this opera, I have always sung it in German. Hearing it in English was a bit of a shock, but all things considered, necessary. This to me was the only problem with the film, but then I remembered that this is part real world, part fantasy. Did they change the opera, of course, but they kept the best Arias, and spoke the dialogue that was sung in the Opera. All in all, this is a movie I would recommend highly, as long as the watcher is not expecting a faithful reiteration of the opera. . Enjoy it for what it is.