New “Magic Flute” Film Is a Winner
LONDON — Kenneth Branagh’s big-screen adaptation of “The Magic Flute,” set for UK release in late November, offers immensely believable characterization and remarkable imagery — a kind of Harry Potter meets Mozart. (The arrival of the Queen of the Night astride a military tank is a classic.) The movie’s first-class cast is as easy on the eye as the ear: Tamino is Joseph Kaiser, whose highly focused voice combines warmth and clarity, and who acts well, too. Pamina is English soprano Amy Carson, who has an instrument of great natural beauty. Ben Davis, who starred in Baz Lurhmann’s “La bohème” on Broadway, is the hapless Papageno, and Sarastro is in the capable hands of René Pape, whose sonorous bass is a joy. James Conlon conducts; the score is sung in English in a wacky new translation by Stephen Fry.