Some questions


I adore this movie, but it makes me see strange things.

1. Sarastro's feelings for Pamina. He doesn't say a word, but his eyes say all. And it seems more than Hans Sachs' feeling for Eva.
2. The Queen and Sarastro - once married and later became enemies? But this would make Sarastro Pamina's father, who also made the flute.
3. The Dante-ish vision when Tamino and Pamina cross fire and water. Who are they? Sarastro's fallen enemies? Demons? It makes a foreboding that not things will end well.
4. Monostatos killing himself? Why? And Sarastro looks so strange when he sees this. Mystery.

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1 & 2. He is her dad. This is stated in the text. What do his eyes say exactly? I assumed just fatherly affection.

3. Since the opera is partly a hymn to the Enlightenment I think we are supposed to assume that they are the unenlightened. (It's also full of Masonic symbolism, which I'm not generally familiar with so it may have something to do with their initiation rituals).

4. I don't think Monostatos kills himself. I just saw this yesterday and didn't notice that. I think he just runs off when the the Queen's forces are routed by Sarastro's.

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

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1. I agree with the first post. He is a bit creepy - partly Bergman filming them embracing with their mouths at the same level, virtually mouth to mouth, for ages.

2. He is indeed her father. And has obviously had a complicated relationship with the mother (who, by the way, the daughter doesn't spend more than a second noticing she's gone down the hatch). Pamino and Tamina will be the ideal couple and replace her parent's warring relationship.

3. I don't know what the traditional staging is of this, but it doesn't have to be done in this way - see Ken Branagh's version for something different. I kind of thought it was Bergman being Bergman?

4. He does get the sword out and stab himself - it's over in a moment. Maybe it's a 'live by the sword and you die by it' idea.

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It's also full of Masonic symbolism, which I'm not generally familiar with so it may have something to do with their initiation rituals


That's true. To fully understand the opera you must be a freemason.

http://users.skynet.be/lotus/art/mozart0-en.htm

http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/Altf/Zauberflote.html

Apart from a genius director, Igmar Bergman was also a freemason, so he was able to understand what he was directing.

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It's also full of Masonic symbolism, which I'm not generally familiar with so it may have something to do with their initiation rituals


That's true. To fully understand the opera you must be a freemason.

http://users.skynet.be/lotus/art/mozart0-en.htm

http://web.mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/Altf/Zauberflote.html

Apart from a genius director, Igmar Bergman was also a freemason, so he was able to understand what he was directing.


Thank you for this post. I knew the story was an esoteric rendering of the soul's development - that much I knew. Your links are great.

Have been looking up the singers in this production - but except for two - the baritone for the Pamino part (Hakar Hagegard) for one - none of the others show up any where. They were born and appeared in 'The Magic Flute' and - for the most part (some exceptions) they are no longer artists in the public realm. They have escaped the Internet! Has me so curious. They were an eclectic group. Has there ever been anything written on the experience of filming this particular Bergman film?

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I'm very late to this thread because I just saw the film.

I know Hakan, and this film made his career, which was just starting. I think what you state is absolutely true - the artists escaped the Internet and had their careers early on, in the '70s and 80s. I know the tenor eventually returned to Austria - I'm sure they all sang in Europe until retirement. With the exception of Kostlinger and Hakan, I wasn't all that crazy about the singing. These people were chosen for being right for their roles since it was on film.

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