Word: pamina
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...take up over half the opera are closely modeled on the initiation rites of the Order. Eighteenth century audiences would have instantly recognized the political allusions couched in the story: the feud between the Queen of the Night and the High Priest over possession of the Queen's daughter Pamina symbolised Empress Maria Theresa's religious warfare against democratic Freemasonry, while the people of Austria (Pamina) were putatively caught in the crossfire. The opera describes a spiritual journey from darkness to light; it ends with the initiation of Pamina and her prince, Tamino into the Temple of Isis as they...
...cooked up a few plot devices in an effort to give the tale some grit and human motivation, and comes dangerously close to melodrama. About halfway through the film we learn that Sarastro, High Priest of the Temple, was once the Queen of the Night's consort, is actually Pamina's father, and has snatched her from her mother's clutches out of paternal concern for her own good. According to the original text this is all wrong. The High Priest is traditionally a somewhat remote cult figure; here he has become a gentle, tender-eyed parent--the sort...
...halo, Sarastro is presented as a wise, paternal New Testament God. The Queen is very female and very nasty, the kind of role Bette Davis made unforgettable. Her malevolent, teeth-gnashing character is a product of the Mason's profound anti-female bias (as Sarastro explains the abduction to Pamina: "You need a man to guide you."). Prince Tamino, the initiate-to-be, has both ineffable simplicity and moral sturdiness. A trusting character, he's not terribly bright. He understands nothing of the immortal intrigues going on above his head, and proves his virtue by doing everything he's told...
...film, the plot seems straightforward. Tamino (Josef Kostlinger), a knight pure of heart but uncertain of course, is enticed by the Queen of the Night (Birgit Nordin) and her handmaidens into abducting her daughter Pamina (Irma Urilla) from the palace of Sarastro (Ulrik Cold). Sarastro, once the Queen's husband, is dabbling in some dark arts that turn out to be nothing more mysterious than the rites of Freemasonry. Tamino is aided in his quest by a forester named Papageno (Hakan Hagegard), whose robust cowardice at times of stress provides comedy relief. The two men, sensing they have been...
When Tamino and Pamina embrace at the end, Bergman has the magic flute fly from Tamino's hand into Sarastro's, a lovely metaphor of universal regeneration, both of life...