MOZART'S The Magic Flute Story: An Opera Fantasy

This production went over very well with my music students in grades K-5, way better than I expected it would! The special effects are totally not believable, but the students did not care. How silly of me to think this might matter. The older students were able to make connections between this version of "The Heroic Journey" and others they were already familiar with from Disney.

I show this every year to my 5th grade general music classes and they love it. It's just enough to give them the feeling of a real opera without bogging down in the heavy opera stuff. I usually show half of it during one class and finish the next. I'm always pleased that they can review the story so far including the voice types for each character.

I was terribly disappointed with this DVD. The singing and staging is barely adequate, the picture, sound quality, and sound direction are all second rate. Some of the arias were cut off prematurely and the transitions into the next scene were poorly done. If your intention is to introduce young people to the story, buy one of the highly recommended DVD's and do your own commentary.

Wonderful, Fast Serive at a Great Price! Thanks!

Fast delivery. Works great!

I found this version at the library and decided to check it out. I was amazed at how bad it was. For one thing, they changed the story around which was bothersome. The singing is really bad, and I think the thing that that bothered me the most is the strange costumes (Tamino looks like an elf!) I also hated all the strange creatures that come out, instead of animals coming out when Tamino plays his flute, they have people prancing out on stage dressed as who knows what. The whole thing was just horrible, costumes, the set, everything...and a lot of times when the commentator is explaining a certain part, it'll be playing a whole different aria (or the wrong part of the aria.) The whole thing is so chopped up, and the DVD is more blurry and grainy than I've ever seen anything on DVD before. I wouldn't buy it or even waste yout time getting it from the library. You're better off buying a REAL production on DVD of the Magic Flute for your kids, such as the one at the Met with Kathleen Battle.

I can see what the other reviewers are saying about this DVDs weaknesses, but I am giving it 5 starts because my two kids (4-almost-5 and 2-almost-3) really love it. The first time they watched it I had to keep pausing it to answer questions but they really found it very gripping. My son was on the edge of his seat and it had just the right amount of intrigue to keep him excited but not scared. Now that they've been introduced to it I'm going to follow up by getting the fairy tale book version by Kyra Teis and a full length DVD.

This was sold as a recommendation for children. It was performed in German(?). While it did have a English narrator a child couldn't follow it.

Review is of magic flute. It is more of a commentary on parts of the play.