71 The Magic Flute

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ola t
They call us neo-cinephiles
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 4:51 am
Location: Malmo, Sweden

Re: 71 The Magic Flute

#26 Post by ola t » Sat Jun 22, 2013 5:44 am

teddyleevin wrote:He directed so many plays, did he ever direct a stage opera production?
Yup, at least twice at the Royal Opera in Stockholm: Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in 1961, and Daniel Börtz's The Bacchae in 1991. Bergman also wrote the libretto for the latter (based on Euripides, of course), which was filmed and shown on TV (along with a making-of docu, unless my memory is playing tricks with me) but is not available on DVD as far as I know.

He also had a smash hit here in Malmö in 1954 with Lehar's The Merry Widow.

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kidc85
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:15 pm

Re: 71 The Magic Flute

#27 Post by kidc85 » Sun Jun 23, 2013 5:24 pm

zedz wrote:I believe The Magic Flute is a bit of an odd duck as far as opera films go because it's sung in Swedish, and this limits the crossover audience (who are just looking for a decent filmed version of the opera) drastically.
It was my impression that, being a Singspiel, opera buffs are more open to the idea of performing MF in whatever language the cast is most comfortable with. It's certainly the only opera I've seen at the ENO or ROH that wasn't performed in its original language.


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MichaelB
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Re: 71 The Magic Flute

#29 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:05 am

kidc85 wrote:It's certainly the only opera I've seen at the ENO or ROH that wasn't performed in its original language.
I thought the ENO almost invariably performed in English? This is certainly true of all the productions I've seen there, although I'm happy to give György Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre a free pass on the grounds that Ligeti himself preferred the English and German versions to the original Swedish, and was very keen on the opera being performed in the audience's native language as a general rule.

It was originally in Swedish purely because it was a commission from Stockholm: Ligeti wasn't the least bit precious about its linguistic integrity, and indeed I'm not aware of any original-language recordings ever being released: Wergo's is in German, Sony's in English, and I believe both are composer-approved.

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tavernier
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:18 pm

Re: 71 The Magic Flute

#30 Post by tavernier » Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:35 pm

MichaelB wrote:
kidc85 wrote:It's certainly the only opera I've seen at the ENO or ROH that wasn't performed in its original language.
I thought the ENO almost invariably performed in English? This is certainly true of all the productions I've seen there
That's definitely what the ENO does...have they ever performed an opera that's not in English?

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swo17
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Re: 71 The Magic Flute

#31 Post by swo17 » Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:30 pm


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