The Magic Flute

This is a straightforward movie - a framing story about our young protagonists in musical school, and the opera itself, played out simultaneously after the hero passes some magical gate every day for a few hours. The framing story seemed a bit cliché but never got the upper hand; the fantasy sequences are perfectly realised, with respect to the fairytale atmosphere of the libretto, so not too realistic but rather colourful and dreamlike.

As to the music, well, I'm not an opera gourmet; I rather liked how some of the arias were blared out with gusto and not too fine an intonation, but on the other hand, the queen's soprano really put goosebumps on my skin - it's quite an event hearing such a perfect and dramatic voice over a cinema sound system (pretty loud, too, in our case).

(I'm a sucker for choir movies, btw ... the human voice is the most beautiful of instruments!) The one thing I didn't understand about the music was the generic end-credits song, why not use Mozart again?

Overall, a hearty recommendation for all music lovers. We liked it very much, even though we're 50ish and the movie is clearly targeted at a younger audience - the school scenes, interior and exterior, are clearly inspired by Harry Potter, they even put in an Austrian railway viaduct similar to the one on the Mallaig line :)

I just happened upon this movie while browsing. I had not heard of it and it sounded intriguing I'm a fan of Mozart so I decided to watch it. I'm very glad that I did. Refreshingly fun, poignant, and entertaining. Not to mention great music. Very nicely done adaptation of the opera. Is the singing fabulous? Those that are real opera singers are wonderful. Everyone else did a really nice job. It's nice to see a great composer get some screen time again and possibly introduce a new generation to Mozart. Forget the bad reviews. Just relax, turn the ringer off on you phone and enjoy it. You will be humming some of these tunes for a few days.

This movie is well done and the plot is unique. A teenage boy who attends the Mozart Academy of Music is magically transported to the world of The Magic Flute. There he actually performs in the opera. It's great to see F. Murray Abraham play the headmaster considering he played Antonio Salieri so well in the movie Amadeus. I do recommend that people see the original opera on stage to fully grasp the scope of the music and story, or as it is called the libretto in opera terms.

This movie is entertaining and puts this opera in a whole new light. It's great for Mozart fans and fans of a good love story. It introduces the magic of Mozart to the next generation.

I am not quite sure why this movie only scores 5.9 (as of today, April 2023). There maybe a few opera snobs around who think it cheapens the Mozart original, but they're wrong.

This movie should be taken for what it is: a good way of introducing opera to a younger generation who probably never hear such wonderful music otherwise.

The cast do a good job and the twin storylines, running in parallel, with the real life romance playing out while the Magic Flute story plays out in the world that Tim/Prince Tamino travels to through the magic clock.

Mozart's score is, as always, enchanting. And there's a nice cameo at the end from a rather well-known operatic tenor....

Fresh from recent screenings of Michael Powell's "Tales of Hoffmann" (1951) and "Bluebeard's Castle" (1963) I thought I'd give this a go... No, in no way can anyone claim that the singing is to the same standard of Norman Foster or Robert Rounseville, but there is one similarity. This is not an opera, it's a filmed interpretation of one - and it's aimed fairly and squarely at younger folks who would no more want to sit through two hours of Mozart sang in German than they'd volunteer for dental surgery. I think that's what makes this worth indulging a bit more. Recruiting the handsome Jack Wolfe (anyone else think he looks a little bit like Thomas Sangster) is guaranteed to turns some heads. He is the seventeen year old "Tim" who takes up his place at the famous Mozart school high in the Alps. He knows nobody and is armed only with the tiniest amount of confidence and a book given to him by his now deceased dad. He gets a distinctly frosty welcome from the musical snobs - including the professor "Lomgbow" (the sparingly used F. Murray Abraham) - in the place, but his roommate "Paolo" (Ellie Courtiour) proves to be OK and he makes friends with "Sophie" (Niamh McCormack) over some "Jackson 5" music on their headphones. What he also discovers is that his book opens a long forgotten secret passageway into the very land in which "The Magic Flute" is set. So long as he goes through at 3 o'clock each night, he will be able to live out the story with "Papageno" (Iwan Rheon), "Pamina" (Asha Banks) as they face the "Queen of the Night" (Sabine Devieilhe). To help defend himself, he has been given a flute and now he must learn to use it to best effect. Yes, it's the "Janet and John" version, and the English language obsession with rhyme can limit the power of the libretto at times, but this is still an engaging mix of modern teen/hormonal drama interspersed through some of the darker, funnier and more sinister elements of the original story. The score is rousing and the cast - especially Devieilhe - deliver the songs adequately enough, I'd say, to encourage anyone interested in the production to take it to anther level - to see it on the stage even. It's not great, but it's a solid effort that might just make this marvellous form of entertainment become of interest to a new generation of Taylor Swift fans.