A huge, old-school operatic production mounted for the Mozart-partizan audience of Salzburg. As a dramatic, on-screen experience, it's pretty lame. This is partly to do with the music/singer-centric staging where design and dramatic detail are subordinate concerns. For example, the animals charmed by Tamino's first outing for the flute look like mangy, rejected extras from Planet of the Apes. Indeed, watching the opening 10 minutes without sound you would be forgiven for thinking you were watching a potted version of Wagner's Siegfried, so stock are the sets, costumes and blocking.<br /><br />The singing is fine, if a little indulgent. The filming is OK, with some good close-ups but the video director has his priority in validating the audience's exclusivity. There are shots of the auditorium not only during curtain calls but also during the performance itself. Essentially it's a document of a stage performance which loses almost everything as an artistic experience-in-itself by being brought to the screen. 3/10