Audience Preview Guide

MAGIC

Student Night at the Opera Wednesday, October 3, 2018 Valentine Theatre

THE

FLUTEWolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Table of ContentsCharacter Listing ................................................................................................................pg. 2Synopsis .................................................................................................................................pg. 3What’s The Magic Flute About? ...................................................................................pg. 4Activity for Deeper Comprehension ...........................................................................pg. 4 W. A. Mozart, the Composer ..........................................................................................pg. 5 The Mozarts and the Enlightenment ..........................................................................pg. 6The Magic Flute - Background ......................................................................................pg. 8The Magic Flute - A Singspiel .......................................................................................pg. 9In Mozart’s Time ...............................................................................................................pg. 10The Magic Flute - Musical Excerpts ........................................................................... pg. 11Discovering the Magic Flute ....................................................................................... pg. 14

THE MAGIC FLUTEby WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZARTLIBRETTO by EMANUEL SCHIKANEDER and CARL LUDWIG GIESECKE

Tamino - A young prince from a far off landPamina - A princess and daughter of the Queen of the NightPapageno - The Queen’s birdcatcher who dreams of having a wifeThe Queen of the Night - Princess Pamina’s mother and ruler of the nightSarastro - High Priest of the SunPapagena - Disguised as an old woman, she seeks a husbandMonostatos - Sarastro’s mean and greedy servantThree Ladies - Ladies in service to the QueenThree Boys - Tamino and Papageno’s guides on their dangerous pathSpeaker and Priests - Determine worthiness of Tamino and PapagenoMen in Armor - Conduct Tamino and Papageno’s trials of fire and water

Characters

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Synopsis

The Moral: Harmony in human society can only be achieved by the perfect union of man and woman; and that this perfect union is characterized by an

equality achieved through pure love and strength of character.

Act I

Following the famous overture, Prince Tamino enters, fleeing a serpent, which represents his fear and lack of wisdom. He calls out for help, and faints before the sight of the beast. The Three Ladies, servants to the Queen of the Night, kill the serpent. Seeing Tamino passed out before them, they admire the handsome prince and argue amongst themselves who will win his heart. They leave to tell their Queen of his arrival, at which point we are introduced to the happy-go-lucky bird catcher, Papageno, whose arrival is announced by his pipes of Pan. The Three Ladies return, and show the Prince a portrait of the Queen’s daughter, who they tell him has been captured by the wicked Sarastro. Tamino is captivated by the image and pledges to rescue her. The Queen arrives. She tells Tamino that if he rescues her daughter, she will give him her hand in marriage; a tempting proposition that the unenlightened Tamino accepts. Tamino and Papageno set off together, led by the Three Boys, who are neither servants to the Queen nor Sarastro. When they enter the forest that divides the Queen’s kingdom from the kingdom of the Sun, the home of Sarastro’s Temple of Wisdom, they are separated. The scene changes to the Temple of Wisdom, where Pamina is indeed being held captive, and is guarded by the evil Monostatos. Papageno finds Pamina first, and scares off Monostatos. He tells Pamina that the Prince is in love with her, and will soon come to rescue her. They muse on finding true love, and creating the happy union between a husband and wife. Tamino finds the Temple of Wisdom. His entrance is stopped by the First Priest – also called the Speaker – who tells him that the Queen has lied to him – that Sarastro is not evil, and that this is a place of peace. Tamino is perplexed by what he has been told by the Speaker. He plays the Magic Flute and discovers it has the power to calm the most savage of beasts. Tamino and Pamina finally meet and pledge to endure the trials of initiation into the Temple of Wisdom together; trials that have their basis in the Freemasonry movement of the 18th century, of which Mozart was a member.

Act II Sarastro tells the priests that the union of Pamina to Tamino will ensure peace throughout the kingdom. He prays to Isis and Osiris to protect them. Papageno endures the trials too – giving us all a bit of comic relief. The first trial is a vow of silence to women, in order to reject the Kingdom of the Queen of the Night. When the Three Ladies appear to scold Tamino for swerving from his original mission, he will not answer them – but Papageno just can’t keep his mouth shut. The Queen enters Pamina’s chamber and in one of the most famous of all soprano arias, orders her daughter to kill Sarastro and bring the all-powerful shield of the Sun to her. She explains that the shield was given to Sarastro by her husband when he died, so Sarastro could rule the Temple of Wisdom. Pamina is devastated by what her mother has told her. The Queen leaves, and Sarastro calmly tells Pamina not to fear; that in the Temple, forgiveness and peace are the order of the day. Pamina goes to Tamino to tell him what has transpired. But, he is still under the oath of silence and does not speak to her. She does not understand his silence, and in despair, she believes that he does not love her. Papageno, bored with the trials, plays the silver bells the Queen had given him before their journey began. He tells us that his needs are simple -- food, good wine, and someday, a pretty little wife. At this, Papagena appears. But the priests tell Papageno that he is not allowed to marry her unless he finishes his trials. Pamina, desperate after being rejected by Tami-no, is persuaded by the Three Boys that Tamino still loves her, and that he is waiting for her to undertake the final trials of Fire and Water. Guided by the Magic Flute, the pair endure the final trial together. After a comical and aborted attempt at suicide, the priest relents and Papageno is finally united with his Papagena. The two sing of their happy life to come – making many little Papagenos and Papagenas. The Queen with Monostatos and the Three Ladies make a final assault on the Temple of Wisdom. But their attack is in vain, as the light of the Temple of Wisdom dispels their hatred. Sarastro gives the mighty shield of the sun to Tamino and Pamina to rule the kingdom in perfect harmony. The people rejoice as Pamina and Tamino begin their reign in peace

and harmony.

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What’s The Magic Flute About?• First performed in 1791, The Magic Flute is Mozart’s most fantastical opera and is among his most beloved.

• Flute is among the top ten most popular operas (operasense.com); yet it is not all sung, one of the usual hallmarks of opera, but is a “singspiel” combining spoken dialogue with musical numbers.

• Flute is considered a great opera for young people and for both beginning and regular opera goers.

• It’s a hero’s and heroine’s quest story, a love story; it’s both serious and comical; it’s about 18th century politics and philosophy.

How Can The Magic Flute Be All Of These Things?

Admitting that the music and the meaning of The Magic Flute are a bit elusive or hard to pin down, we at Toledo Opera invite you to read the materials about Mozart and the opera in this Audience Guide. From the list below, select several areas that interest you and, referring to the articles about Flute’s plot elements, composer, music, and historical context, describe how the opera addresses that particular area. The list serves as a preview of what to look for and appreciate in the opera and what to reflect on after experiencing it. • Love• Humor vs. Despair• Wisdom• Courage• Musical Styles• Musical Themes for Characters• Enlightenment Philosophy• Freemasonry Symbols• Singspiele vs. Musicals vs. Operas

Activity for Deeper Comprehension

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Wolfgang Amadeus MozartBorn on J a n u a r y 27, 1756 in S a l z b u r g , A u s t r i a , W o l f g a n g A m a d e u s Mozart was d e s t i n e d for musical greatness. At

the age of three, Mozart was able to pick out tunes on the piano. By five, he was composing music of his own. Mozart’s father, Leopold, recognized his son’s talents and felt they needed to be shared. Leopold soon decided to leave his position as concertmaster in Salzburg and take his family on a concert tour of Western Europe. On this tour, Mozart amazed court patrons with performances at major musical centers in Europe such as Munich, Paris, and London. People were amazed by Mozart’s great talent.

He successfully composed his first orchestral symphony at age 8 and his first opera, La finta semplice, by age 12. These achievements helped gain him the position of honorary Konzertmeister (or Music Director) at the prestigious Salzburg court in 1769.

In 1777, Mozart left Salzburg in hopes of finding an even better job. He traveled throughout Germany but was unsuccessful in finding a position he liked. The next year, Mozart continued to Paris, where he composed his Symphony No. 31, known today as the Paris Symphony.

Having still not found a permanent new position, Mozart decided to return to Salzburg, a place where he knew he would be welcomed back as court organist and concertmaster. There, Mozart produced

numerous works, including his Coronation Mass (1779) and Idomeneo (1779), a serious Italian opera that would become his first operatic success. Mozart’s continued success caused him to resent his job as a court organist. He no longer wanted to write music that was required by the elite. He wanted to have more control over his life. In 1781, Mozart once again left his post in Salzburg.

1782 was a year of fresh beginnings for Mozart. It was in that year when he married Constanze Weber and completed the comic opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. This period of time was very productive for Mozart and he met Italian librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. Their partnership produced three of the most popular and best-loved operas of Mozart’s career, the first of which, The Marriage of Figaro, premiered in Vienna in 1786. Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte followed soon after in 1787 and 1790.

Despite these successes, Mozart and his wife lived well beyond their means and were in constant debt. In 1787, Mozart was appointed to the post of Chamber Music Director for Emperor Joseph II in Vienna; however, the salary did little to lessen any financial hardships. In 1791, Mozart was commissioned to compose a score to Emmanuel Schikaneder’s The Magic Flute, which was inspired by the group they were both members of, the Freemasons. The opera premiered in Vienna to large success. Also in 1791 was the premiere of La clemenza di Tito, which would become the last of Mozart’s operas.

On December 5, 1791, Mozart became quite ill and he died at the age of 35. Despite his unquestionable reputation as the greatest musical mind of his time, Mozart was buried with little ceremony in an unmarked grave in Vienna, as was legally required for all those without noble or aristocratic birth.

Used with permission of Opera Philadelphia

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The Mozarts & the EnlightenmentWolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born into a family deeply involved with music and philosophical scholarship. His father Leopold realized the musical genius of his son and felt that Wolfgang’s musical brilliance had to be balanced with a strong education. He ensured his son’s studies included languages, the classics, and sciences. The Mozart family boasted the possession of a collection of microscopes which young Mozart used in his scientific studies. Wolfgang had a classical education in grammar and rhetoric and was constantly implored by his father to read good books that would stretch his mind.

Leopold was not a wealthy man, and he felt that fate had entrusted him to protect and cultivate his son’s intelligence. To do this, he took young Wolfgang on many trips. The young boy’s musical talents were displayed to Europe’s royalty in the hopes of

attracting a benefactor who would financially

ensure that his son had every opportunity to develop his talents.

During the family’s travels, Wolfgang was exposed to the music and the masters of his era. In London, he was introduced to composer J.C. Bach and Franz Joseph

Haydn. Haydn was so awed by Mozart that he turned to Leopold and said, “Before God, your son is the most gifted composer living.” Wolfgang studied the musical style of these men and drew inspiration from their wisdom.

During a family visit to Paris, Wolfgang played for Baron Melchior Grimm who was in the inner circle of the philosophers and Enlightenment thinkers. Grimm was fascinated by Wolfgang’s musical gifts and understood his father’s reasons for touring with the young boy. As a result, Grimm allowed Leopold to receive a paper he edited known as the Correspondance littéraire. Grimm’s offer was amazing because the paper was published only for German-born heads of state to keep them abreast of the philosophical debates occurring at the time. On the subscription list was Catherine the Great of Russia, Leopold II who succeeded Joseph II on the Viennese throne at the end of Wolfgang’s life, the Queen of Sweden, and many princes of smaller German states.

The fact that Leopold was among those who received this paper indicated the high esteem he received from those who understood his dedication to his son’s education. Having been exposed throughout his life to Enlightenment ideas, Wolfgang believed that a man’s respect was equated with the value placed on his work. Wolfgang did not consider himself any man’s servant. He was an educated Austrian artist who was due respect and honor. Mozart’s other enlightened political beliefs were expressed in many of his operas. In The Marriage of Figaro (1785), the peasants had full run of a nobleman’s palace. This comedy was a parody of the fact that the aristocrats did not rule, but responded to the pressures placed upon their lives by the demands of the lower classes.

In Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787), he

Leopold Mozart1719-1787

Catherine the Great1729-1796

Franz Joseph Haydn1732-1809

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highlighted the punishment that awaited those in the aristocracy who abused their social position and did injury to women and the lower classes. Mozart believed that seduction and rape damaged the social order and undermined the Enlightenment’s goals of individual freedom, legal equality, and toleration.

During the end of the opera’s first act, the cast sings an enlightened and revolutionary “Viva la libertà” (“Long live Liberty”). Giovanni then breaks the rules of society and tries to dance a lower class piece of music with Zerlina in an attempt to seduce her. After this, he is unmasked as the villain. This behavior reflected the Enlightenment idea that men should not act out of passion.

Political change in France in the form of the revolution (1789) brought, by way of the Viennese press, the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality for all into Vienna. The Storming of the Bastille in Paris caught the attention of many people in Vienna, especially Viennese intellectuals.

Mozart’s belief in the Enlightenment’s ideals continued to be reflected and even promoted in his works, which echoed the era’s culture. C o r re s p o n d i n g l y, those same ideals and shifting emotional

and political thinking overtook Europe.

Mozart’s last opera, The Magic Flute, would show how he believed men and women could attain enlightened relationships. This opera highlighted his understanding of how social enlightenment could be achieved. In The Magic Flute, men and women are forced by trials to advance to wisdom. The social structures are clear and the goals are easily understood. This opera reflected Mozart’s hope that the Enlightenment could free men from the restricting class barriers of the era.

Mozart believed that the structure of the Masonic Order was a good example of secular discipline. He believed the Masonic way of life could assist mankind in reaching an enlightened state because it taught about the brotherhood of all men. He was an active member in this movement as was, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and many of our country’s founding fathers. The relationships of the members as equals enable them to see each other as brothers and, as a result, attain the enlightenment’s goal of human fraternity. However, Europe was still divided by religious boundaries. The idea of having people join a social organization which allowed members to be from various churches and classes was disturbing to some rulers.

In Austria, Queen Maria Theresa was against the Freemasonry movement because the Roman Catholic Church had condemned it. However, her Catholic son, Joseph II, was a Freemason and, as emperor, he refused to impose the Church’s ban. This led some to see a comparison between Queen Maria Theresa and the opera’s Queen of the Night with her son as the enlightened hero, Tamino. The same people saw Ignaz von Born, the noble head of the Masonic movement in Vienna, as the opera’s Priest of the Sun, Sarastro.

During his life, Mozart integrated his education in the Enlightenment with his artistic creations. His contributions to opera have made a lasting impact upon this field of art. It is hard to know how much of an impact his political beliefs had upon society. However, understanding them enables us to further appreciate his work as an opera composer of the Enlightenment era.

Used with permission of Opera Philadelphia

Louis XVI1754-1793

George Washington1732-1799

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The Magic Flute - The BackgroundOne of the most-performed operas in the world, The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte, K. 620) is an opera in two acts, composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Mozart was persuaded to write the music by his friend Emanuel Schikaneder, an actor, singer, dancer, playwright, director, and impresario, whose theatre company churned out light comedies, farces and spectacles for middle class Viennese audiences. Schikaneder wrote the libretto for Die Zauberflöte, creating the story out of a hodge-podge of plays, romances, fairy tales, and Masonic lore. He probably didn’t expect it to do more than make a bit of money and keep the audience amused. In his eyes, it was just another Singspiel (a popular form of German play, usually comic, that included spoken dialogue interspersed with songs).

The opera premiered in Vienna on September 30, 1791. Mozart conducted the orchestra. Schikaneder played Papageno, while the role of the Queen of the Night was sung by Mozart’s sister-in-law Josepha Hofer. It was immensely popular. Mozart wrote his wife Constanze a week later: “I have this moment returned from the opera, which was as full as ever. As usual the duet ‘Mann und Weib’ and Papageno’s glockenspiel in Act I had to be repeated and also the trio of the boys in Act II. But what always gives me most pleasure is the silent approval! You can see how this opera is becoming more and more esteemed.”

The Magic Flute was Mozart’s last opera; he fell ill and died just over two months after its premiere, but the work remains perhaps the most beloved legacy of this great composer. Mozart added to the comedy and fantasy of the Singspiel genre a new profundity that influenced German music and opera for generations.

Beethoven called The Magic Flute Mozart’s greatest work, for therein he for the first time reveals himself as a German master. And Beethoven thought enough of the music that he wrote two sets of variations for cello and piano, one on Papageno`s aria “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” and the other set on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen,” another delightful aria sung by Papageno in the opera.

That colossus of German opera, Richard Wagner, said of Die Zauberflöte, “What celestial magic prevails in this work from the most popular melody to the most sublime hymn! What variety, what manysidedness! … In truth, genius has here made almost too great a giant step; for in creating German opera, Mozart at the same time gave us the most perfect masterwork of its kind, which cannot possibly be surpassed, nay, whose genre cannot even be enlarged and developed.”

It is simply impossible to explore all the layers of this opera. Pacific Opera’s Artistic Director Timothy Vernon calls it an operatic Great Chain of Being. Just as in Shakespeare’s plays, reality and magic collide, and the result is greater than the sum of its parts. There is no definitive interpretation, no way any production can capture all its richness and subtlety. A perfect work to welcome newcomers to the world of opera, The Magic Flute never ceases to intrigue. It invites even the most jaded and experienced among us to revisit it time and again.

One commentary says of it: “The Magic Flute almost defines a masterpiece, because it can be enjoyed on every level. It is a superb fairy story, complete with dragons, demons, a handsome prince, and a lovely maiden seriously in need of rescue; it is a political satire, social commentary, and psychological drama; it is full of tunes from the playful to the heart-stopping, jolly songs, and deeply spiritual outpourings. It is, in short, ‘Mozart’ – and there is no greater compliment than that. (Naxos)”

Perhaps the most succinct comment on the greatness of this opera came from Neville Cardus, a great English critic and long-time writer for the Manchester Guardian, best known for his writing on music and cricket. He said, The opera … is the only one in existence that might conceivably have been composed by God.

Used with permission of Pacific Opera Victoria

The Magic Flute - Play bill of the first performance in 1791 at Schikaneder’s Theater aud der Wieden in Vienna.

The Magic Flute - A SingspielWhat transforms the sophisticated, joyous adventure of The Magic Flute into one of the most remarkable masterworks in the repertoire is, of course, Mozart’s music. It’s a fascinating grab-bag of styles, encompassing infectious folk airs, sonorous hymns, and coloratura pyrotechnics, that somehow all come together into a marvelous whole. The Magic Flute is not a traditional opera, in which all the vocal parts are sung, either as arias (tunes for solo voice), ensembles (tunes for two or more voices) or recitative (passages that are sung or chanted using the rhythm of natural speech rather than following a strict musical metre).

Instead, The Magic Flute is a form of German musicaltheatre called a Singspiel (pronounced Zing-shpeel).Translated literally as sing-play, a Singspiel is a kind-of hybrid opera in which musical numbers – often folk ballads and popular songs – are strung together with sections of spoken dialogue.

Singspiele are rather like today’s musicals, except that The Magic Flute still demands an operatic voice – a highly trained voice with the power to be heard in a large theatre over a full orchestra without a microphone.

Although the Singspiel is a German form, the only really German element in many Singspiele is the language and the simple folk songs.

The first Singspiele were actually translations of English ballad operas – plays which alternated spoken dialogue with lyrics set to popular tunes.

The most famous example of the ballad opera is John Gay’s The Beggar`s Opera, which was among a string of English ballad operas that were translated into German and performed in Germany in the early 18th century. French comic operas (Opéra comique) were also frequently transcribed into German.

In the 18th century, Italian opera dominated Europe and England and was the operatic form preferred by the aristocracy and the German and Austrian royal courts. German-language opera was relegated to performances by touring companies who presented Singspiele in the language of the common folk, with comic or romantic plots, elements of magic, and comically exaggerated characterizations of good and evil – easy escapist fare.

Most of Mozart’s operas were written in Italian and followed the traditional forms of Italian opera: opera seria (heroic or tragic operas) such as Idomeneo and

La clemenza di Tito, and opera buffa (comic operas), such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, (although the latter two are usually classified as dramma giocoso (“jocular drama”), for their rich mixture of the serious and the comic. However, Mozart did compose a few Singspiele, starting when he was 12, with the one-act Bastien et Bastienne, followed in 1786 by another one-act opera, Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), the unfinished Zaide, and Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) which premiered in 1782 and remains popular today.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail was the one success of a short-lived attempt by Emperor Joseph II to develop German opera.

In 1776, in a fit of nationalism, Joseph II established the German National Theatre at Vienna’s Burgtheater. Two years later he established a German-language opera troupe, the National Singspiel and fired most of the Italian performers.

His goal was to develop German theatre and opera and a sense of German identity. However, almost all the works performed were translations from the French and Italian, and the emperor’s own taste ran to Italian opera. With these two strikes against it, the brief experiment petered out in 1783.

In the following years commercial theatres sprang up in Vienna offering German-language opera. But these Singspiele were intended as money-making entertainment for the masses, not as an expression of German nationalism.

The impresario Emanuel Schikaneder had particular success with his Theater auf der Wieden in the suburbs of the city It was here in 1791, that Die Zauberflöte had its première, with Schikaneder as librettist, producer, director and performer (he was the first Papageno).

Die Zauberflöte remains the finest example of the Singspiel tradition by any composer of any time. However, it defies such simple categorization, since it incorporates elements from other operatic genres.

The other great crowning glory of the Singspiel tradition is, surprisingly, Beethoven’s Fidelio, which adapts the genre to a serious subject.

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In Die Zauberflöte, we find elements of Singspiel in the magical motifs such as the gadgets that protect Tamino and Papageno; in some of the tuneful folk songs, notably those sung by Papageno; and in the sense of danger and adventure – for example, the snake that threatens Tamino and the Perils-of Paulineatmosphere when Monostatos terrorizes Pamina.

But opera seria bursts in with the stupendous musicfor the Queen of the Night – the recitative and aria “O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn “and the revenge aria “Der Hölle Rache.” Between the two extremes are the pieces sung by Tamino, Pamina, and Sarastro with their directness and emotional sensitivity.

By the late 19th century, Singspiel would evolve into operetta, a form made famous by composers such as Franz von Suppé, Johann Strauss II, and Franz Lehár. Singspiel also strongly influenced later German opera composers such as Wagner and Richard Strauss and was a major factor in the development and dominance of German opera during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Conductor Timothy Vernon, who knows a thing or two about music, says of The Magic Flute: “The level of sheer musical inspiration is dizzying. While most of its idiom is glass-clear classical harmony with only the occasional chromatic intrusion, it suggests something new in Mozart’s thinking, and is in this sense more ‘prophetic’ than Figaro or Giovanni. Our thoughts about how to play Mozart have changed radically in the past decades as a result of the ‘period practice’ movement with its concern for original instruments, styles of playing and even pitch. The music benefits greatly in charm and spontaneity from increased flexibility and sprightliness born of nimbler tempi and a ‘gestural’ approach to phrasing.”

Used with permission of Pacific Opera Victoria

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In Mozart’s Time

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1756 Mozart is born on January 27.

1758 Noah Webster (Webster’s Dictionary) is born in Connecticut.

1759 George Frideric Handel dies and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

1760 Industrial Revolution began in England. King George III is coronated.

1761 Mozart’s first known public appearance.

1762 1st St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City.

1764 Mozart writes his first symphony at age eight.

1766 Christie’s auction house holds its first sale.

1769 Mozart’s first opera, La finita semplice, premieres at the archbishop’s palace in Salzburg.

1770 British Captain James Cook discovers Australia.

1772 During a 10 months period, Mozart writes 8 symphonies, 4 divertimentos, and sacred works, and receives a salary as Konzertmeister.

1773 Boston Tea Party occurs in Boston Harbor.

1775 American Revolution begins at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.

1776 Thomas Jefferson composes the Declaration of Independence from Britain.

1777 The first U.S. flag is made by Betsy Ross.

1779 Mozart travels to Paris with his mother, who falls ill and dies.

1781 Idomeneo premieres in Munich.

1782 Mozart marries Constanze Weber and The Abduction from the Seraglio premieres in Vienna.

1783 Spain and Sweden recognize U.S. independence.

1784 Mozart becomes a Freemason.

1785 Benjamin Franklin invents bifocal glasses.

1786 The Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna. U.S. Congress makes the dollar the monetary unit.

1787 Leopold Mozart dies and Don Giovanni premieres in Prague.

1788 The U.S. Constitution is ratified.

1789 1st U.S. electoral college chooses George Washington as president.

1790 Così fan tutte premieres. The first session of the U.S. Supreme Court is held in Philadelphia.

1791 Mozart begins writing a Requiem Mass. On September 30, The Magic Flute debuts in Vienna. After a brief illness, Mozart dies on December 5 at the age of 35 and is buried in an unmarked mass pauper’s grave.

Act 1Papageno: Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja (The bird-catcher, that’s me!)Papageno sings about his job as a birdcatcher and adds that he’d really like to catch a girl to have for a wife.

A net for girls I’d really like,I’d catch them by the dozen for me!If all the girls were mine, I’d trade in sugarand to the one I liked the best,I’d give the sugar at once.And then if she kissed me tenderly,she’d be my wife and I her husband.She’d fall asleep at my side,and I would rock her like a child.

This is essentially a folk song in the Singspiel tradition – direct, appealing, and tuneful – in keeping with Papageno’s character, which is perhaps the most engaging in the opera. Papageno is not particularly heroic, and his human failings get him into constant trouble.

As he explains later in the opera,Fighting isn’t my thing.I don’t basically want any wisdom either.I’m a kind of child of nature, taking pleasure in sleep, food and drink;and if it were even possible some time for me to capture a pretty little wife.

But somehow he’s dragged into this heroic epic; despite himself he rescues a princess, undergoes trials of courage, and wins a girl of his own in the end. Papageno’s music is like his character – folksy, charming, warm-hearted, down to earth, braver than he realizes, and utterly irresistible.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sw5tr3Hka8Simon Keenlyside is Papageno.

The Queen of the Night:Recitative: O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn! (O tremble not, my dear son!)Aria: Zum Leiden bin ich auserkoren (To suffer I have been chosen)This is the first of the two great coloratura arias sung by the Queen of the Night. Coloratura singing is full ofelaborate florid ornamentation and is usually associated with a very high soprano voice. In keeping with his habit of writing music to suit his singers, Mozart wrote this aria specifically for the first Queen of the Night, his sister-in-law, Josepha Hofer. The brilliant coloratura suits the vengeful, passionate, otherworldly dark force represented by the star-blazing Queen.

In the opening recitative, the Queen tells Tamino not to be afraid, that he is innocent, wise, and noble, and that she, a sorrowful mother, needs his help.

O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn(Oh, do not tremble, my dear son!)You are innocent , wise, and pious.Only a young man like you will be able tocomfort the deeply distressed heart of a mother.

The aria proper follows as the Queen recounts how her daughter was kidnapped from her by an evil scoundrel.

Zum Leiden bin ich auserkoren (Suffering is my lot)for my daughter is not with me.Through her I have lost all my happiness; a villain made off with her.I still see her trembling with alarm and shock, quivering with anxiety, struggling timidly.I had to see her stolen from me, “Ah help!” was all she said;but her pleading was in vain, for my power was too feeble.

At first the aria is slow, sad, and gentle, telling of a mother’s grief. It then it gives way to a more intense, faster

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Nathan Gunn as Papageno in the Met’s The Magic Flute.

The Magic Flute - The Music

pace as she bursts into the fiery coloratura, enlisting Tamino’s help and promising that Pamina will be his if he frees her:

Du, du, du wirst sie zu befreien gehenYou, you, you, will go to set her free.you will be the man to save my daughter.And if I see you triumph, she will be yours forever.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L8MBq3sq9oKathryn Lewk is the Queen of the Night at Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence 2014.

Act 2The Queen of the Night: Der Hölle Rache (The vengeance of Hell)In the second aria by the Queen of the Night, we get a sense that she might be far more dangerous than the grieving mother suggested in her first aria in Act 1 of the opera. On his death Pamina’s father had given the Seal of the Seven Circles of the Sun to Sarastro, depriving the Queen of her power. The Queen now learns from Pamina that her potential son-in-law Tamino has gone over to the enemy, Sarastro. Demanding vengeance, the Queen gives Pamina a dagger and threatens to disown her daughter if she does not kill Sarastro.

Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem HerzenThe vengeance of Hell boils in my heart, death and despair are blazing around me!Unless Sarastro feels the pangs of death at your hands, you are no longer my daughter.Forever disowned, forever abandoned, forever destroyed may all ties of nature be,unless Sarastro dies at your hands!Hear! Gods of vengeance! Hear a mother’s vow!

This is one of the most familiar coloratura arias ever. It demands extraordinary vocal range and flexibility to carry off the elaborately ornamented vocal lines and the very, very high notes – this aria contains the highest note in the standard repertoire (F6 – 2 1/2 octaves above middle C). Although a few less-performed works call for higher notes, this aria continues to exemplify the human voice at its most stunning.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRDt9aaGg-QKathryn Lewek is the Queen of the Night at Festival International d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence 2014.

Der Hölle Rache in Outer Space:Der Hölle Rache was the only operatic selection chosen to accompany the Voyager spacecraft on their journey to the stars. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 each carry a phonograph record of sounds and imagesselected to tell extraterrestrials about Earth.

If any alien beings find one of the Voyager satellites and play the record, they will hear the unearthly voice ofsoprano Edda Moser telling Pamina to kill Sarastro. Voyager 1 is now (in 2017) about 20 billion km from earth, and Voyager 2 is some 17 billion km away. Even after they run out of electrical power sometime around 2025, they will continue to wander through the Milky Way galaxy. Long after the sun dies and the earth is destroyed, Mozart’s Queen of the Night may still be travelling among the stars.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5_d6_N7d3kEdda Moser sings the Queen of Night’s second aria on the Golden Record that travels with the Voyager spacecraft. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 1972

Pamina: Ach, ich fühl’s, es ist verschwunden (Ah, I feel it, it has disappeared)This is perhaps the most tragic moment in the opera. Pamina is heartbroken as Tamino, bound by the trial of silence, refuses to speak to her – and Papageno, for once, keeps silent, just when we’re counting on him to help by blurting something out!

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Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night in the English National Opera’s

The Magic Flute.

This deeply moving outpouring of grief and despair prepares us for Pamina’s later attempt to kill herself.

Ach, ich fühl’s, es ist verschwundenAh, I feel the happiness of lovehas vanished forever!My heart will never know happiness again.Look, beloved Tamino, my ears fall for you alone.If there is no love in your heart,Then I shall find peace in death.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIVdOiyGgo4Dorothea Röschmann is Pamina, with Will Hartmann as Tamino, in the 2003 production by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Colin Davis conducting.

Papageno: Papagena, Papagena, Papagena! Weibchen, Taubchen (Papagena, Little wife, little dove)Pining for his darling Papagena, Papageno calls out for her in vain. Finally, desolate, he decides to hang himself, although his “goodbye cruel world” act is clearly not as serious as Pamina’s, and he keeps looking for excuses to delay. Finally as he’s ready to go through with it, the three spirits intervene and tell him to play his bells. He does so, and Papagena appears. A delightful duet ensues.

Papageno and Papagena:Pa-pa-pa, pa-pa-pa. papagena

At first stuttering in astonishment and delight, then falling into an exuberant love duet, Papageno and his beloved envision the family they will have:

My dear little wife, dove of my heart,What joy it will bewhen the gods give us children from our loveDarling little children –First a little Papageno,then a little Papagena,Then again a Papageno,Then again a PapagenaIt is the happiest of feelingswhen many, many, many, many Papageno(a)s are intheir parents’ care!

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87UE2GC5db0Detlef Roth is Papagena and Gaële Le Roi is Papagena for the Paris Opera production in 2000.

Used with permission of Pacific Opera Victoria

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Leigh Melrose (Papageno) and Hanan Alattar (Pamina) in Seattle Opera’s

The Magic Flute.

Pamina and Tamino in San Fransico Opera’s The Magic Flute.

The Magic Flute is quintessential Mozart – delightfully simple on the surface, the perfect way to introduce a child to opera. After all, this is the composer who wrote a set of variations on Twinkle, twinkle, little star. And he’s the namesake for the Mozart Effect, which has entered popular consciousness as the concept that listening to Mozart makes kids smarter.But there’s more to Mozart – and to The Magic Flute.

The more we get to know this opera, the more complex and elusive it becomes. It can be interpreted in a dizzying variety of ways.

It was written, not as a hifalutin piece for the courts, but as a theatrical entertainment for the public. That said, courage, nobility, and love, not to mention underpinnings of Masonic lore and enlightenment philosophy, are all in there, cheek by jowl with the humour and the magic.

It can be treated as a children’s fantasy with lions and tigers and bears, monstrous serpents, and elaborate special effects. Or as the Da Vinci Code of opera – an enormously popular thriller with elements of secret societies, danger, a religious backdrop, an intrepid team on a quest for truth.

As Timothy Vernon notes,The story with its quest motif in the foreground, and something as deeply layered as the shift from matriarchal to patriarchal order in the background, remains compelling, its fascination undimmed by repetition … The Masonic vocabulary – the almost inexhaustible trios of everything from flats in the key signature through Ladies, Knaben, chords – even the ubiquitous musical triad – may have lost something of its mystifying allure, but we all know magic when we hear it!

Reams of paper, gallons of ink, gigabytes of computer memory have been expended in attempts to analyze

this opera and to pin down its magic. And yet a child can walk in, sit down, and be enraptured.

Timothy, again:Zauberflöte remains a fresh and enigmatic challenge to any and all who would produce it. The folkish bumptiousness of some of its humour can be misleading: it is a work of true profundity - whether or not this was intentional, it is surely a not unnatural expectation of a supreme genius at the height of his creative powers. Like Tempest or Faust, there can be no definitive production, its scope is grand, and fundamental ambiguities remain; no single manifestation can exhaust everything in the piece. It is an operatic Great Chain of Being.

Infinitely malleable, this opera has seen an astonishing variety of interpretations, from straightforward productions with Germanic forests and quasi-Egyptian temples, palm trees and pyramids to fanciful and mystical depictions set in various mythic Neverlands.

In 2004, the Metropolitan Opera presented an abridged English-language version by Julie Taymor (creator of the 1997 Tony-award-winning Broadwaymegahit The Lion King). Taymor’s child-focused production featured giant puppets and dancing bears in a multicultural landscape and has now become a holiday tradition at the Met.

Discovering The Magic Flute

Stage Design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for an 1815 production of The Magic Flute. Act 2, Sarastro’s temple

Puppets by Julie Taymor for the 2004 production of The Magic Flute at The Metropolitan Opera. And below.

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Kenneth Branagh’s wildly unorthodox 2006 film placed the opera in the trenches of World War One – and incorporated comic strip elements such as a giant pair of red lips floating in the countryside!

Branagh’s riff on the opera transforms the snake that threatens Tamino into a serpentine cloud of mustard gas; the three ladies who rescue him are field nurses,

and Papageno keeps the canaries used to detect lethal gas. The Queen of the Night rides a tank and sings her great aria Der Hölle Rache as Pamina is tied to a spinning windmill.

Among other recent interpretations are a production directed by Peter Hall and designed by cartoonist Gerald Scarfe for LA Opera. Described as exuberantly distorted and loopy, it featured genetically engineered beasts, including a giraffstrich (giraffe and ostrich) on stilts and a crocoguin (crocodile and penguin).

In 2007, Vancouver Opera’s unique First-Nations-inspired production featured Papageno in the colours of a Steller’s Jay, Sarastro’s priests in the ceremonial garb of ten of BC’s coastal nations, and the intrepid heroes setting off on their journey in a golden canoe.

Mozart’s music remained unchanged, but was set toa libretto in English, that incorporated words from the henqemin language, with permission of the Musqueam nation. That production was remounted in 2013, again in consultation with First Nations partners, again presenting a unique blend of European tradition and ancient west coast mythology and imagery.

An acclaimed 2007 adaptation for the Isango/Portobello company, an all-black company from South Africa, was performed with marimbas, percussion, and a “magic trumpet,” while Papageno’s magic bells were played on glass Coke bottles amid tribal chants and traditional African dance.

A zany animated production co-conceived by BritishTheatre Group 1927 in collaboration with Barrie Kosky, Artistic Director of Komische Oper Berlin, made its world première in November 2012.

F e a t u r i n g live singers w i t h i n an imat ions i n s p i r e d by 1920s silent films, with a nod to the dark humour of Edward Gorey and German Expressionism, this quirky re-imagination of The Magic Flute is part cartoon, part opera, and wholly sensational. It continues to play in repertoire at Komische Oper Berlin, alongside new productions worldwide, which have included Los Angeles, Warsaw, Helsinki, Madrid, and the Edinburgh Festival.

Pacific Opera Victoria’s last production of The Magic Flute, in 2009, evoked Vienna, the opera’s spiritual home. Inspired by Otto Wagner’s art nouveau architecture, specifically the municipal train station he designed for Vienna’s Karlsplatz, the production was a homage to the graceful elegance of fin-de-siècle Vienna.

Art Nouveau is known in German as Jugendstil, meaning Youth Style – an appropriate conceptfor an opera that appeals to young and old alike, that is, among so much else, about growing up and facing the music, about being young and in love and in Vienna.

Each of these interpretations is thought-provoking and achieves a kind of Mozart effect as we learn new Opera

perspectives on an old favourite – while

always revelling in the sine qua non of this opera – the ineffable magic that Mozart weaves with his music.

Used with permission of Pacific Opera Victoria

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Justin Welsh as Papageno in Pacific Opera Victoria’s The Magic Flute.

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