“...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.

Though Mozart is just one of many famous musicians of his time and era, there are certain elements of his personality and talent that really do set him apart.  In David Ewen’s “Opera”, he writes about the way in which Mozart differed from history’s other masters of music.

“Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.” ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart’s relationship with his father, Leopold, is one of the most compelling father-son relationships in history and has been dramatized on the screen and stage several times.  It is interesting that it is to his father that Mozart reveals what the modern world knows of hiLeos religious feelings and orientation.

Many music lovers are of the opinion that Rebecca Black – singer of the world-ridiculed song “Friday” – has become a phenomenon simply because she released the song in the age of YouTube and viral videos.  But long before Rebecca, there were other “singers” whose fame was derived from singing badly.

Perhaps Mozart never envisioned his operas being performed in the great outdoors, but the practice has actually been a long-standing tradition in England.  This June and July, music lovers will be attending “open-air” festivals all over the country.  Garsington Opera’s  outdoor production of Mozart’s "Magic Flute", for example, will take place on the beautiful estate of Wormsley, north west of London.

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.

For the first time in music history, all of Mozart’s stage works will be performed in a row by a single opera house.  At the annual Mozart Festival in Warsaw, Poland, the city’s chamber orchestra will be performing all of the famous musician’s theatrical creations, starting with The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutte and The Abduction from the Seraglio.

Here are just 10 simple pieces of information about the life of Mozart that you may not know. Find out more about his family life, his reputation throughout Europe and his musical rivalries here!