Classical Gas

Against the advice of all higher cognitive functions I attended a film version the other day of Mozart's Magic Flute opera at the Enzian. How it delightfully surprised me, actually laugh- out-loud funny whenever this one big guy would speak gravely with a straight face in that goofy language. Why people didn't just crack up over Hitler with his Charlie Chaplin mustache to boot, I'll never know. Maybe you have to be German not to recognize stand-up when you see it. Also it was refreshing to get a heroine who could have picked her teeth with Twiggy. Far from requiring rescue, she looked quite capable of defeating the villain herself. Or being the villain. Since Placido Domingo's attraction to her was entirely skin deep, and there was plenty of it, maybe that's how it was in the day.