Marcia J. Citron (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780252043000
- eISBN:
- 9780252051869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252043000.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Bergman’s Magic Flute (1975) is one of the highlights of opera-film. It represents a splendid example of Bergman’s mastery of image and film technique, and a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s late ...
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Bergman’s Magic Flute (1975) is one of the highlights of opera-film. It represents a splendid example of Bergman’s mastery of image and film technique, and a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s late opera. Except for chapters by Jeongwon Joe (1998) and Jeremy Tambling (1987), it has been underrepresented in research on opera-film. There is much more to be said, especially with respect to sound. Not only are Flute’s sound practices critical to the film, but its emphasis on vococentrism is unusual for an opera-film and also connects Flute to Bergman’s cinema as a whole. Many elements in the soundscape contribute to Bergman’s highly personal interpretation. One is the dry environment in the passages of spoken dialogue, recorded live and its contrast with the warmer environment in the musical numbers, which were prerecorded. The spoken sections impart a sense of intimacy and interiority, qualities found in other Bergman films, such as Persona, The Seventh Seal, and The Hour of the Wolf. Ambient noise occurs in some places, its use linked to certain moods and situations. Variations in the resonance of the vocal music add another element to the mix. This chapter focuses on three places in Flute. The second tableau, numbers 1-5, uses sound to delineate the juxtaposition of theater and cinema and establish a link between dry speech and interioirity. In the scene of Tamino’s crisis at “O ew’ge Nacht,” an expanded array of effects, including the acousmêtre and reverberation in addition to dryness, limn Tamino’s psyche and underscore a key moment of the opera. And at Pamina’s parental crisis in the first half of Act II, silence as well as sound plays an integral role. The striking sound design of Bergman and his team is crucial to the film’s aesthetic style, in which “less is more,” and its reputation as a landmark of opera-film.Less
Bergman’s Magic Flute (1975) is one of the highlights of opera-film. It represents a splendid example of Bergman’s mastery of image and film technique, and a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s late opera. Except for chapters by Jeongwon Joe (1998) and Jeremy Tambling (1987), it has been underrepresented in research on opera-film. There is much more to be said, especially with respect to sound. Not only are Flute’s sound practices critical to the film, but its emphasis on vococentrism is unusual for an opera-film and also connects Flute to Bergman’s cinema as a whole. Many elements in the soundscape contribute to Bergman’s highly personal interpretation. One is the dry environment in the passages of spoken dialogue, recorded live and its contrast with the warmer environment in the musical numbers, which were prerecorded. The spoken sections impart a sense of intimacy and interiority, qualities found in other Bergman films, such as Persona, The Seventh Seal, and The Hour of the Wolf. Ambient noise occurs in some places, its use linked to certain moods and situations. Variations in the resonance of the vocal music add another element to the mix. This chapter focuses on three places in Flute. The second tableau, numbers 1-5, uses sound to delineate the juxtaposition of theater and cinema and establish a link between dry speech and interioirity. In the scene of Tamino’s crisis at “O ew’ge Nacht,” an expanded array of effects, including the acousmêtre and reverberation in addition to dryness, limn Tamino’s psyche and underscore a key moment of the opera. And at Pamina’s parental crisis in the first half of Act II, silence as well as sound plays an integral role. The striking sound design of Bergman and his team is crucial to the film’s aesthetic style, in which “less is more,” and its reputation as a landmark of opera-film.
Anna Bull
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- July 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190844356
- eISBN:
- 9780190844387
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190844356.003.0007
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter assesses the encounter between a youth opera group and Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Singing opera gave the young women in this group a sense of control and embodied confidence, ...
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This chapter assesses the encounter between a youth opera group and Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Singing opera gave the young women in this group a sense of control and embodied confidence, negating the body image issues that several of them described. Against this, the strongly gendered institutional and cultural context of classical music, including the musical-dramatic text of The Magic Flute itself, undermined this experience thanks to the ideology of ‘fidelity’ to origins and authenticity that is normative in classical music culture. This inhibited the radical potential of the bodily empowerment that the young women experienced through limiting the possibilities for re-imagining the musical text, thus also limiting any possibilities for changing the practices that bring the text to life.Less
This chapter assesses the encounter between a youth opera group and Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute. Singing opera gave the young women in this group a sense of control and embodied confidence, negating the body image issues that several of them described. Against this, the strongly gendered institutional and cultural context of classical music, including the musical-dramatic text of The Magic Flute itself, undermined this experience thanks to the ideology of ‘fidelity’ to origins and authenticity that is normative in classical music culture. This inhibited the radical potential of the bodily empowerment that the young women experienced through limiting the possibilities for re-imagining the musical text, thus also limiting any possibilities for changing the practices that bring the text to life.
Katherine Kolb
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199391950
- eISBN:
- 9780199391981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199391950.003.0038
- Subject:
- Music, Opera, History, Western
What purports to be the review of a Conservatoire concert—one that featured excerpts from Mozart’s Magic Flute—begins with a comic satire of audience misbehavior, mirrored by the players, who are ...
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What purports to be the review of a Conservatoire concert—one that featured excerpts from Mozart’s Magic Flute—begins with a comic satire of audience misbehavior, mirrored by the players, who are having an off day. Berlioz briefly discusses the Haydn symphony on the program, and Beethoven’s Fourth, contrasting the two; but his review is mainly a pretext for denouncing the Parisian tradition, anathema to Berlioz, of adapting foreign works to the supposedly refined taste of the French. With scathing irony, he flays the mangling of Mozart’s Magic Flute by a arranger (Lachnith) whom he purposely leaves nameless but who as a German, he says, should be ashamed. Berlioz is in high gear as crusader, his satire unfolding in waves of indignation as he warms to his subject. A portion of this tirade will end up in his Memoirs.Less
What purports to be the review of a Conservatoire concert—one that featured excerpts from Mozart’s Magic Flute—begins with a comic satire of audience misbehavior, mirrored by the players, who are having an off day. Berlioz briefly discusses the Haydn symphony on the program, and Beethoven’s Fourth, contrasting the two; but his review is mainly a pretext for denouncing the Parisian tradition, anathema to Berlioz, of adapting foreign works to the supposedly refined taste of the French. With scathing irony, he flays the mangling of Mozart’s Magic Flute by a arranger (Lachnith) whom he purposely leaves nameless but who as a German, he says, should be ashamed. Berlioz is in high gear as crusader, his satire unfolding in waves of indignation as he warms to his subject. A portion of this tirade will end up in his Memoirs.
Julian Rushton
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195182644
- eISBN:
- 9780199850624
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182644.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great icons of Western music. An amazing prodigy — he toured the capitals of Europe while still a child, astonishing royalty and professional musicians with his ...
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great icons of Western music. An amazing prodigy — he toured the capitals of Europe while still a child, astonishing royalty and professional musicians with his precocious skills — he wrote as an adult some of the finest music in the entire European tradition. This book is a biography of this musical genius, combining a well-researched life of the composer with an introduction to the works — symphonic, chamber, sacred, and theatrical — of one of the few musicians in history to have written undisputed masterpieces in every genre open to composers of his time. The book offers a portrait of the composer, ranging from Mozart the Wunderkind — travelling with his family from Salzburg to Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, and Milan — to the mature author of such classic works as “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovanni”, and “The Magic Flute”. During the past half-century, scholars have thoroughly explored Mozart's life and music, offering new interpretations of his compositions based on their historical context and providing a factual basis for confirming or, more often, debunking fanciful accounts of the man and his work. The book takes full advantage of these biographical and musical studies as well as the definitive New Mozart Edition to provide an accurate account of Mozart's life and, equally important, an insightful look at the music itself, complete with musical examples.Less
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the great icons of Western music. An amazing prodigy — he toured the capitals of Europe while still a child, astonishing royalty and professional musicians with his precocious skills — he wrote as an adult some of the finest music in the entire European tradition. This book is a biography of this musical genius, combining a well-researched life of the composer with an introduction to the works — symphonic, chamber, sacred, and theatrical — of one of the few musicians in history to have written undisputed masterpieces in every genre open to composers of his time. The book offers a portrait of the composer, ranging from Mozart the Wunderkind — travelling with his family from Salzburg to Vienna, Paris, London, Rome, and Milan — to the mature author of such classic works as “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovanni”, and “The Magic Flute”. During the past half-century, scholars have thoroughly explored Mozart's life and music, offering new interpretations of his compositions based on their historical context and providing a factual basis for confirming or, more often, debunking fanciful accounts of the man and his work. The book takes full advantage of these biographical and musical studies as well as the definitive New Mozart Edition to provide an accurate account of Mozart's life and, equally important, an insightful look at the music itself, complete with musical examples.
Katherine Kolb
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199391950
- eISBN:
- 9780199391981
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199391950.003.0022
- Subject:
- Music, Opera, History, Western
Berlioz’s first official article for the Journal des débats follows the order of the program in reviewing the first Conservatoire Orchestra concert of the season, thus conveying the typically varied ...
More
Berlioz’s first official article for the Journal des débats follows the order of the program in reviewing the first Conservatoire Orchestra concert of the season, thus conveying the typically varied and uneven nature of these programs. This one features the “Credo” from Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (sparking a tirade against rapid fugues on “Amen”) a violin solo by Mayseder, and a sacred choral piece (“Laus spirituali”), besides the three works Berlioz considers the heart of the concert: a lyric scene for voice and orchestra by the still largely unknown Schubert, Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony, and the overture to Mozart’s Magic Flute. The article begins with a retrospective of the founding of the great Conservatoire orchestra, of musical conditions in Paris before its existence, and of the early obstacles to appreciation of Beethoven in France.Less
Berlioz’s first official article for the Journal des débats follows the order of the program in reviewing the first Conservatoire Orchestra concert of the season, thus conveying the typically varied and uneven nature of these programs. This one features the “Credo” from Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (sparking a tirade against rapid fugues on “Amen”) a violin solo by Mayseder, and a sacred choral piece (“Laus spirituali”), besides the three works Berlioz considers the heart of the concert: a lyric scene for voice and orchestra by the still largely unknown Schubert, Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony, and the overture to Mozart’s Magic Flute. The article begins with a retrospective of the founding of the great Conservatoire orchestra, of musical conditions in Paris before its existence, and of the early obstacles to appreciation of Beethoven in France.
