The Queen of Night((Birjit Norden) sends Prince Josef Köstlinger and bird catcher Håkan Hagegård to rescue her daughter, Irma Urrila, who has been kidnapped by Ulrik Cold. At least, that's the story they start out with.
Ingmar Bergman's production of Mozart's opera was originally done for television, and then released into movie theaters. To succeed fully, it has to succeed at a stage opera, a television show, and a movie. I'll say that it works handsomely for the first two media, not so well for the last, where it largely becomes a television production offered in a different venue.
The issue for me is that the show starts with the overture, a brief glimpse of the stage, then we look at the audience staring intently forward, presumably at the stage. Even in a theater, that's not the way people behave. Audience members drift into their seats,climbing over people, apologizing, removing their clothes. Even if by some miracle, they are all already seated, they're talking to their neighbors, looking around the hall at the other audience members. Thus we've already destroyed the verisimilitude that is at the heart of movies, the "seeing is believing" aspect. We're not drawn into the opera, and later reaction shots of audience members don't help. Perhaps we are meant to be reassured. This, their rapt interest tells us, is a good production, worthy off our attention.
And it is a good performance, a fine one indeed. So if you wish to enjoy it for that, I can't really dispute your taste, since I enjoyed it a lot too.
Ingmar Bergman's production of Mozart's opera was originally done for television, and then released into movie theaters. To succeed fully, it has to succeed at a stage opera, a television show, and a movie. I'll say that it works handsomely for the first two media, not so well for the last, where it largely becomes a television production offered in a different venue.
The issue for me is that the show starts with the overture, a brief glimpse of the stage, then we look at the audience staring intently forward, presumably at the stage. Even in a theater, that's not the way people behave. Audience members drift into their seats,climbing over people, apologizing, removing their clothes. Even if by some miracle, they are all already seated, they're talking to their neighbors, looking around the hall at the other audience members. Thus we've already destroyed the verisimilitude that is at the heart of movies, the "seeing is believing" aspect. We're not drawn into the opera, and later reaction shots of audience members don't help. Perhaps we are meant to be reassured. This, their rapt interest tells us, is a good production, worthy off our attention.
And it is a good performance, a fine one indeed. So if you wish to enjoy it for that, I can't really dispute your taste, since I enjoyed it a lot too.