“...the only music which might be put into the mouth of God without blasphemy.”
- George Bernard Shaw — on The Magic Flute

This spectacular modern reworking of Mozart’s breakthrough 18th century opera tells the story of a young classical singer, Tom Henderson, who is cast— against his better judgment— as the lead in a 2006 staging of The Magic Flute in Salzburg.

Mozart started his career as a composer at the age of four, when he began composing piano pieces. At the age of five he was composing minuets and by age nine he had composed his first symphony. He wrote 20 complete operas, his final and most spectacular being The Magic Flute, which he wrote in the last year of his life at age 35. Mozart was a combination of the revolutionary compositional brilliance of modern day composers such as John Lennon and Paul McCartney with the groundbreaking performance individuality of an Elvis Presley—all rolled into one. He was the ultimate iconic pop-star of the 18th century who traveled across Europe on tour, each one more outstanding than the next. Fortunately for a modern audience his genius has never faded. In celebration of his 250th birthday I wanted to capture some of his most joyous work on film, and decided that a contemporary movie version of The Magic Flute might be workable if told as the backdrop to a modern love story, conveyed on a fantastical scale.

The Magic Flute is an unparalleled masterpiece of music, and this film might be considered an epic in terms of the scope of production. Not only does the film weave between time periods, reality and the imagination, it is also Kevin Sullivan’s first significant movie to incorporate computer generated imagery with live action.

One often misunderstood aspect of Freemasonry is that historically it has been an initiatory order. To this day, Freemasons must go through certain rites of initiation before they are considered full members of the order. It is this voyage of self discovery that leads to the ultimate goal… enlightenment.

The Broadway production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute is predicted to be the star attraction in Opera Australia’s summer season in January.  It was recently announced that the OA’s program for 2012 includes the famous opera, created by Julie Taymor – the director of Broadway’s extremely successful production of The Lion King.

The Sullivan Movies library is filled with a number of inspiring dramas, in addition to its beloved miniseries and television shows.  One of these films is Mozart's Magic Flute Diaries, which was recently made by Kevin Sullivan and delves into the world of opera in an entirely unique way.

Here are ten statements made by the world famous composer about life, love and genius.

“Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

For all lovers of a good murder-mystery, there’s a new detective novel to check out, starring Mozart himself.  Author Matt Rees has published a book called Mozart’s Last Aria, which builds on the famously murky circumstances surrounding the beloved musician’s death.

Although he was a musical genius and, unlike some of his contemporaries, received much applause in his own lifetime, Mozart was still working under an unfair patronage system.  He was very much a man trying to make ends meet.  And this can be seen in the many letters he wrote to his father in the year 1781.

Finding a way to continually reinvent one of the most famous operas in history, Mozart’s "The Magic Flute", has been a mission for artistic directors all over the world.  To turn the opera into a ballet seems unique enough, but add to that the use of shadow puppets, and you have a completely contemporary take.