Director : Julie Taymor
Cast : Ying Huang, Erika Miklosa, Matthew Polenzani
For the first time in Asia (except Japan), cinema goers can watch filmed operas in high definition (HD) digital formal in a
Goldn Village VivoCity, an art that goes hand in hand with technology. And this would my first!
I was excited as the songs go to its peak but also disappointed as the camera angles, especially close-ups, gives you the visibility of the back end works or flaws that are not usually seen in live operas, where you are feets away.
The Magic Flute, an English-language version of
Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte. I initially thought it's just an opera that uses Mozart's music. But no! Mozart wrote the original opera, in German, for a theater located just outside Vienna and now, it amuses audiences from all walks of life.
As entertaining as it sounds, I was glad it's sung in English with English subtitles (hehe!) 'coz there are moments that I can't make out some of the words and when I did, the whole meaning sounds hilarious.
On the note of hilarious, if politely I hv to put it, the costumes are very 'out of the box'. Its fabrication folds at all sort of weird angles and in all kinds of shapes you can ever think of. Perhaps, it's because I deal with normal gmt day in and day out and fail to appreciate such art, especially when it's designed by the director herself -
Julie Taymor.
Honestly, that really didn't matter (although I hv to admit that at times, the sight
AND the shapes are distracting) because the vocals are superb! Pitch perfect, totally awed by it.
Nevertheless, I luv the fact that there is a mix of all characters from fairy and elegant like to comic and earthly. My favourite one is
Erika Miklosa, the Queen of the Night. She You can feel her soul from the expression via her eyes.
= My Favourite Scene = As zebra and I youtube this, we stumble over
Diana Damrau, who's even more powerful! Her anger and desperation just leapt out of the screen!!
Few years ago, Judd Apatow’s comedy The 40 Year Old Virgin surprised everyone by hitting the box office. In this movie, the lines are sharp - there are parts that smacks you right on the spot.
