longtime colleague Sven Nykvist. The process of creating the film began with a recording session, starting 6 April 1974, at the Circus Theater in Stockholm. In addition to the singers who appeared in the film, the musical forces included the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Ericsson's own choir, the Swedish Radio Choir. This recording provided a carefully sung version with balanced audio, to which the singers later synchronized their mimed singing during filming. The latter began on 16 April 1974 at Filmhuset in Stockholm, Studio 1, and was completed in July. The film had its first screening in the old barn at Bergman's house on Fårö (which had just been transformed into a cinema) on an August evening in the same year. Cast Bergman later wrote (in his book Images) on how he chose his singers. Since we were not performing The Magic Flute on a stage but in front of a microphone and camera, we did not need large voices. What we needed were warm, sensuous voices that had personality. To me it was also absolutely essential that the play be performed by young actors, naturally close to dizzy, emotional shifts between joy and sorrow, between thinking and feeling. Tamino must be a handsome young man. Pamina must be a beautiful young woman. Not to speak of Papageno and Papagena. Josef Köstlinger – Tamino ; ; – Three Ladies Håkan Hagegård – Papageno Birgit Nordin – Queen of the Night Irma Urrila – Pamina Ragnar Ulfung – Monostatos Ulrik Cold – Sarastro – Papagena Erik Saedén – Speaker Gösta Prüzelius – First Priest Ulf Johanson – Second Priest Hans Johansson and – Two Sentries in Armor Einar Larson, Siegfried Svensson, Sixten Fark, Sven-Eric Jacobsson, Folke Jonsson, Gösta Bäckelin, Arne Hendriksen, Hans Kyhle, Carl Henric Qvarfordt – Nine Priests , , Erland von Heijne – Three Boys Unknown – First, Second, and Third Slaves , Nina Harte, Helena Högberg, Elina Lehto, Lena Wennergen, , Sonja Karlsson – Seven Girl Attendants Helene Friberg – Girl in Audience The Swedish Film Institute lists some of the other individuals who appear very briefly during the overture as audience members: Ingmar Bergman himself, his son Daniel Bergman, his wife Ingrid von Rosen, Erland Josephson, , the film's cinematographer Sven Nykvist, János Herskó, Magnus Blomkvist, the film's choreographer Donya Feuer, and Lars-Owe Carlberg. Style Bergman sought to tell the story not with a realistic cinematic