AMY CARSON was a Music student at Cambridge University when she landed the lead in Kenneth Branagh’s film version of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute.
Branagh’s update of the 1791 opera sets the action during the First World War and stars Carson as Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night. When Pamina is kidnapped, the task of rescuing her falls to a young soldier named Tamino and his sidekick Papageno.
Carson chats to film journalist Jan Gilbert about her feature film debut.
Amy Carson (left) was a student when she auditioned for the lead role, Pamina
MMM: You were at university when casting took place for The Magic Flute. Talk us through that time.
Carson: I heard about the auditions on the grapevine – they were approaching singers’ agents all over the world. My singing teacher knew the casting director, Sarah Playfair, so I sent her an email asking if it was too late to audition. Sarah emailed back: ‘It depends for what part. We’re pretty far through the process.’ When I said it was for Pamina, she told me, ‘Send me an audio sample and a photograph and we’ll see.’ I was very hopeful that they hadn’t chosen anyone.
So I had 24 hours to produce an audio sample, preferably of Pamina’s aria. I didn’t have it on an audition tape, so recorded it with my father, who’s a pianist. We recorded it in our music room which is in a sort of log cabin in the garden. It wasn’t the best acoustics in the world, but we just went for it! I sent it the following morning by email. Sarah got back to me a couple of days later to say that [director] Ken [Branagh] would like to meet me. I had my first audition about a week later.
MMM: How did you hear you’d got the part?
Carson: I was walking to Trinity College, running past King’s College. I was late for choir practice, and got a call from Sarah offering me the part. It couldn’t have been more of a surprise! It had been such a long audition process, I’d almost forgotten about it by that stage
MMM: What was the reaction from your friends at uni?
Carson: That was really exciting because I kept it a secret for my own self-preservation. I really wanted the part and wanted to avoid the huge disappointment if I didn’t get it and all my friends knew. So when I suddenly announced after choir practice that I’d got it, everyone was really excited.
Kenneth Branagh set Mozart's opera in the trenches of World War Two
MMM: Tell us about your musical experiences at uni?
Carson: I was a choral scholar at Trinity College. We did lots of touring, including to India and San Francisco, and we did a broadcast every year, and services three times a week. So that took a lot of time, but was amazing.
When I wasn’t doing that I tried to get involved in whatever was happening on the music scene, particularly opera. I did a production of The Magic Flute in my first year at university. I played the First Lady, and it was such fun!
Then in my second year I did Dido in Dido and Aeneas. In my third year I did much more concert work and played in the Second Niece in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, which was a really exciting production.
Whatever was going on, I tried to get involved, but obviously with study and choir there was little time left.
MMM: So you had some experience of The Magic Flute before this film, but what was it like working with Kenneth Branagh?
Carson: It was fantastic. He’s absolutely brimming with energy. It was always going to be a very challenging project bringing opera to film, but he really gelled everything together. And it was always such fun as well!
MMM: What was the highlight of shooting The Magic Flute for you?
Carson: I think for me it was the day that we filmed Pamina’s suicide scene towards the end of the opera. Everything flowed and I felt so comfortable and confident in what I was doing. It was wonderful because it was quite far through the filming and Ken just left me to my own devices. I felt like I’d really worked out what my relationship with the camera was and had found my place in that world. It felt amazing.
