The Amadeus Award for Taste & Excellence

Without, I hope, detracting from this wonderful award with a prosaic introduction, I was uploading the latest iTunes on Sunday when it wiped out my wireless internet connection, so it was with an old-fashioned cable in the back of the machine that I learnt the news that Herr Mozart has generously awarded me The Amadeus Award for Taste & Excellence.

It certainly helped me get through the next few hours of struggling with wep keys and other such dull matters... but I digress. Herr Mozart is currently celebrating ten glorious years on the web (no small feat for a busy court composer) and I am honoured to receive this rather beautiful award. As the Maestro explains: 'The Amadeus Award for Taste and Excellence is to be given to five blogs that meet the qualifications which I have previously stated [sites that are dedicated to the 18th century and which demonstrate through their content and appearance the style and grace of that period in history]. Please give it in the spirit of community, love of history, and artful presentation.'

With these things in mind, I have chosen:

1. Tempus Fugit - The Doctor is already a winner of this award, but his design skills, video/photographs and reflections on the period really are outstanding.

2. Tale-pieces - a charming and well-informed blog on the activities of The Bewick Society.

3. American Duchess: Feathers, Finery & Frippery of the 18th Century - I'm in awe of Lauren Reeser's creativity and can't wait to see how her 18th-century gown project turns out.

4. Clerk of the Fur Trade - another beautifully presented site that gives a fascinating insight into the life of an 18th-century trader.

5. Slightly Obsessed - she may be slightly obsessed, but Widow Black is one clever, clever lady. Check out her beautiful period clothing, always so well researched.

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DVD Review: The Magic Flute

Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute
Chamber Orchestra of Europe/James Conlon (PG)

When it came out in 2007 I tried in vain to get to see Kenneth Branagh’s film version of The Magic Flute, so I was thrilled this Christmas to be given the film on DVD. I was intrigued to know what Branagh - who admits to being a total opera novice – made of it.

While it wasn't a disappointment exactly, it turned out to be a deeply flawed adaptation, though Stephen Fry’s jaunty libretto seemed to hit the mark. Leaving aside the difficulty of trying to translate a static artform like opera into something cinematic, Branagh makes the odd decision to shift the opera into a place resembling the World War I trenches. He wants the piece to be about war, while Mozart and librettist Emanuel Schikaneder were clearly writing about Freemasonry and Enlightenment values. I felt he was straining to make the metaphor work, and the horrors of the trenches seemed an uncomfortable backdrop for an opera that includes pantomime foolery.

That’s not to say the music lacks any power; the cast are almost uniformly excellent. Rene Pape is a commanding Sarastro, while Joseph Kaiser and Amy Carson as the lovers, Tamino and Pamina, acquitted themselves well. Lyubov Petrova gets a memorable entrance atop a tank as the Queen of the Night, and her vocal set-pieces are incredibly visceral (though Branagh almost doesn’t know what to do with the camera during Der Hölle Rache). It was a terrible decision to rely so heavily on computer graphics throughout, which, instead of creating magic, frequently dehumanise the piece. At times I felt like I was playing some sort of opera game on a Wii.

Yet for all my complaints, I was entertained. Unlike Ingmar Bergman in his 1975 film adaptation, Branagh doesn't try to ignore the problems inherent in filming opera; the result may not always have worked, but it was certainly never dull.

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