Recently up on “Scholarshit,” my pseudo-academic blog is a piece that explores the various attempts to turn opera into film. Productions discussed include Bergman’s “Magic Flute,” Syberberg’s “Parsifal,” Zeffirelli’s “Otelllo,” Powell and Pressburger’s “Tales of Hoffmann,” Rosi’s “Carmen” and Friedrich’s “Elektra.”

Since the birth of cinema, filmmakers have been irresistibly drawn to opera. From Cecil B. DeMille’s 1915 silent version of Carmen to Kenneth Brannagh’s forthcoming film of The Magic Flute, the impulse to blend these composite art forms has tempted and frustrated an array of film artists. This is hardly surprising, as both art forms are mass spectacles that use a variety of media to communicate dramatic and emotional content.
Yet, opera rarely translates well to the screen without the feeling that something has been lost. There are many challenges to creating a successful Film-Opera. A director has to find his own solutions to issues of theatricality, spectatorship and ways to deal with what is basically a struggle for supremacy between music (in opera) and image (in film)… READ MORE