Showing posts with label The Magic Flute. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Magic Flute. Show all posts

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Fanny and Alexander

click on picture to enlarge



John Tallman's' Blog ColorChunks is a rare treat. Today, he featured a still taken from Bergman's movie about his childhood in Sweden. I loved that film because it reminded me of all the stories I heard growing up of my father's childhood in Europe before the wars. Bergman also filmed a version of The Magic Flute, which was pure magic; it had a sweet dense color, slightly hazy. But the picture above seems to be a kind of dream view of a proscenium from the first balcony, reminiscent of a Mozart opera in period costume. Perhaps I was thinking of that Magic Flute, but it actually feels more like this production of Così fan Tutte starring a young Susan Graham and the magnificent English soprano Susan Chilcott who, tragically, died only a few years after it was made. Così, as a story, doesn't make a lick of sense but it is all about human frailty and there is no greater ensemble singing anywhere, ever. This is Mozart at his most sublime.