To add my two cents

Okay, I'm a fairly young American.
But even so, I think I could have made a better film of this opera than this.
I love 'Die Zauberflote' in it's original German.

To add my two cents, (and not expecting anyone to fully read this, it's for my own reference) I'll go through what went wrong and what I would change.

Issue #1 - Language. I didn't like their translations. It just didn't sound right. The wording.....it just wasn't up to par. I'd leave it in German. I don't see what's wrong with subtitles. Besides, I think it's much more beautiful in German.

Issue #2 - Of all the themes done with this opera over the years, they choose an English war-time? I can't decide which is worse, that, or the Met's futuristic rendition. It's a magical story. With the theme they picked, it just seemed very odd and, at times, cheesy, as if these magical components are completely random, instead of a nice flow with the events. I'm note sure which theme I'd choose, but it certainly would not be in the midst of a war.

Issue #3 - The actors. I say, pick the characters on their singing ability first, acting second, in this instance. Germany has one of the most competitive opera commmunities in the world. They should have looked there first. Especially the 3 boys. Tolzer Knabenchor, a German boy choir, one of the best in the world, specializes in training the boys to participate in renditions of this particular opera. I was expecting to hear the voices similar to Robin Schlotz, Alexander Lischke, and Frederic Jost. Instead, I hear mediocre. As for Papageno, I'd cast Nathan Gun. Not German, I know. But he was in the dreadful futuristic one, but he was probly the only part of that rendition that wasn't horrible. He was actually really great, and with the right direction, he could pull off the perfect character.

I think that pretty much covers all the major changes.
The things that I liked about it were the cinematography. The look of the film, the camera angles, were very well done.

That's just my opinion.
But I felt like I had to get that off the table.


Love. Think. Speak.