The Magic Flute


If I'm correct, The Magic Flute was originally written in German. So why is it performed in English during the film?

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Because the rest of the film is in English. The point about The Magic Flute is that it's in the vernacular, the language of the people, the language we're hearing throughout the film.

Strictly, of course, the whole film ought to be in German, or rather Austro-German, but that's another matter.

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I guess I was just curious because all of the other operas featured in the film are in the original language in which they were written (i.e. The Marriage of Figaro is in Italian).

Twenty pounds of brown sugar!

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Yes indeed, and our characters have a conversation about this very point, with old Kappelmesiter Bonno saying that "German is too brutal for singing", remember? But the film obeys the filmic convention, that the language we are hearing everyone speak is 'German'. The point about The Magic Flute is that it's in the language of the common people and performed in a music-hall, not at the state opera house. Schikeneder calls it a 'vaudeville', a popular entertainment.

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This relates to my almost-adjacent thread on the accents of the actors. They all speak in their native accents (American, British), except for Patrick Hines (Bonno) who speaks in a false accent.

It seems unnecessary, therefore, for the opera sequences to be delivered in Italian. In real life, many operas are translated for the sake of the local audience. Following from this, for the sake of the film's English-speaking audience, it would be more appropriate to do the whole thing in English.

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The Magic Flute is usually, as opposed to most operas, performed in the performers' native tongue. The main reason for this is that it's really less of an opera per se and more of a musical, as there are no recitatives and the majority of the dialogue is spoken. Now, since all the German in the film is translated into English, it only makes sense that the Magic Flute should be too.

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Yes, during the film, english is sopposed to be german, either in everyday speaking or on stage. The proof is that the other german opera we see, Abduction from the Seraglio, is also sung in english in the film, while the italian operas (Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni) keep the lenguage.

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What I am curious about is that, if this film was ever dubbed in German, then did they dub the opera in its original lyrics? Or did they keep the singing in English?

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If they can hire professional opera singers dub those parts in German, yes. Unless they don't have the budget for it, in which case it'd be lazily left undubbed.

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The description of the blu ray I've seen says it was dubbed in German. Can anyone who has this confirm whether the operas were also dubbed?

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I know I'm a bit late to join this thread, but I'd like to answer the question anyway. :-)
In the German dubbed version, the operas were not dubbed - the original English singing was kept as it was.
When I watched the film back in 1986 when it was shown in German theatres, I can still remember how confused I was because Die Zauberflöte was supposed to be in German. I took a moment to realize that English was used because, as somebody mentioned above, in the film English was supposed to be German.

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Actually it was "Die Zauberflöte" that was written in German...

"The Magic Flute" is the English translation of the title as used when the Opera is performed with an English libretto eg the 2016 production by the English National Opera, which I had the great delight to attend :)

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The OP is obviously a moron.

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