Anyone who was ever played Mozart’s music – as an amateur musician, trained professional, or appreciative listener – can attest to the hold his original melodies place on your mind throughout the duration of the piece, and well after. Even as a young piano player, making my way through Mozart’s sonatas in preparation for recitals and examinations, I remember thinking that if I could do justice to just one of the many compositions from various artists that I would be playing, I would like to do justice to his.
To be enthralled in Mozart’s music is not a singular experience, but it seems to be a private one. That is why Kevin Sullivan’s feature film Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries is so original. It tries to capture exactly what goes on inside the heart and mind of people when they listen to his works.
We get to travel through Mozart’s world via the film’s main character, Tom. He is a young virtuoso singer who moves to Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace, and is cast as the lead in the city’s staging of one of Mozart’s most famous operas – The Magic Flute. Tom becomes instantly transported by the genius of the music. And, being stationed in the city, he becomes inundated with the rich culture and ambiance of the place that would have inspired Mozart himself a couple centuries before.
Here is a look at one of the opening scenes from Mozart’s Magic Flute Diaries, in which viewers will appreciate the conditions surrounding Tom’s inevitable obsession with Mozart’s score.
