This movie was funded by the Sir Peter Moores Foundation. This institution has backed numerous operatic recordings in English released on CD. Although this movie is the Foundation's first movie, it is their second recording of the opera (the first was released on CD in 2005). The cast for this movie is entirely new.
Shot entirely in a studio. Even the final scene, which supposedly takes place in sunlit exteriors, was created partly by CGI effects.
At twenty-three, this is Amy Carson's first major role. Anna Gottlieb, the soprano who sang the role of Pamina in the original production, was seventeen. At twelve, she had sung a major role in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro".
Joseph Kaiser reportedly lost thirty pounds between recording and shooting to fit the young romantic soldier look of Tamino.
The tank which appears in this movie was a specially-built replica. It was slightly smaller than a real World War I tank would have been, and powered by a Ford Transit engine. It is now in the hands of a historical re-enactment society.
James Conlon: The conductor appears as an officer, reassuring the nervous private at the end of the long tracking shot during the chorus in the trench.