Die Zauberflöte Handout

Die Zauberflöte Handout
Liping Xia
Historical and Compositional Background
 Pregnant Constanze and need money to support the family.

 Emanuel Schikaneder (director of Wiednertheater) invited Mozart to collaborate this opera.
 Libretto is original from a fairy tale in Dschinnistan, written by Christoph Martin Wieland
(Famous German poet and writer, wrote the first Bildunsroman).
 Written and designed for a popular and mixed audience, not for the court (Die Entführung)
 The Magic Flute & the Requiem were composed about at the same time.
o Mozart started in early July;
o finished the major parts in August;
o the overture and March of the Priests was completed couple days before the premier.
 Mozart became a mason on January 7, 1785. He was an active Mason.
 This opera was composed after the Singspiel Der Stein der Weisen
Librettist: Emanuel Schikaneder

Original Language: German
Premier: 9/30/1791 in Wiednertheater
Conductor: Mozart (from the clavier).
Main Characters’ singers:
 Papageno: Schikaneder
 Tamino: Benedict Schack (Mozart’s close friend: composer, wind player and vocalist)
 The Queen of the Night: Josepha Hofer (Mozart’s sister-in-law)
 Sarastro: Franz Xaver Gerl (has the low F)
Two Acts with a long overture
Magic flute (panpipe); Magic bells (Glockenspiel)
Gain a huge success during that time (full house even on Saturday: postal day). Mozart wrote:
“I’ve just come back from the opera; —it was full as ever. —The Duetto Man and Wife and the
Glockenspiel in the first act had to be repeated as usual—the same true of the boys’ trio in the 2nd
act, but what really makes me happy is the Silent applause! —one can feel how this opera is
rising and rising.”
😋October 7-8, 1791 to Constanze

Character/Role
Tamino (pronounced tah-mee-no) A young prince who sets out on an adventure to find
and rescue his princess.
Represesnt Austrian people
Tenor
Queen of the Night The Queen of the Night pretends to be on Tamino’s
side at their first meeting, but we’ll soon find out she’s
not as nice as she seems!
Represent the reactionary Empress Maria Theresa
Soprano
Three Ladies The Queen of the Night has three “ladies”, who are her
attendants and do her bidding.
Soprano
Papageno (pah-pah-gae-no) Papageno is a bird-catcher who sells his birds to the
Queen of the Night. He’s a simple guy who just dreams
of having a girlfriend!
Bass
Spirit boys Three boys are sent to guide Papageno and Tamino on
their dangerous path.
Soprano
Pamina (pa-mee-nah) Pamina is the daughter of the Queen of the Night.
She’s locked up in the house of Sarastro and awaiting
rescue. She’s also very brave, standing up to her
mother!
Represesnt Austrian people
Soprano
Monostatos (moh-noh-sta-tohs) Monostatos is the mean and greedy servant of Sarastro.
He’s not really loyal to anyone and goes after anything
he wants!
Tenor
Sarastro (sah-rah-stroh) Sarastro is High Priest of the Sun. At the start of the
opera, we think he’s the bad guy (but we might change
our minds as the story goes on!)
Represent Masons
Bass
Papagena (pah-pah-gae-nah) A cheerful simple girl who goes around disguised as an
old woman, Papagena is looking forward to finding a
man and settling down to have some little baby chicks.
Soprano
Brief Plot
ACT 1
Tamino, a prince, is rescued from a huge serpent by Three Veiled Ladies – servants of the Queen of the
Night. The Queen has a daughter – Pamina who has been captured by Sarastro. The Queen promise that
Tomino can marry her if he can rescue her daughter.
Papageno joins his adventures and they have a magic flute and bells. Meanwhile, they are guided by Three
Boys. Papageno can’t help Pamina escape successfully from Sarastro. Tamino is convinced that Sarastro
is a good leader. Then Tamino and Pagageno are invited to undertake the initiation trials of Sarastro’s
circle.
ACT 2
Sarastro prepares four trials for Tamino and Papageno. They were sworn to silence in a darkened room.
The first trial makes Sarastro dismiss Monostatos forever from his service. In the second trial, Papageno
tells the profession of love to Papagena before she transforms from an old woman. Tamino passes through
the trials of fire and water with Pamina.
The three boys advise Papageno to use his bells to recover Papagena. Sarastro, the Three Boys and the
lovers and the priests make the Queen, her ladies and Monostatos vanish before the sunlight of wisdom
and truth.
Musical Style
Mozart and the Masonic elements
 Rituals of freemasonry.
 Three Temples (Wisdom, Nature, Reason)
 Many three involves in this opera: keys start and end in Eb Major, many triads, three Ladies,
three boys.
 Masonic hostility to women reveals the thought of enlightenment.
 The controversy in Masonic circle is that whether or not should allow women to become a full
member. Mozart showed his feminism in this opera (equality with Man and Woman)
 The items in Lodges of Adoption for women were a serpent, veils, and a golden padlock. 😋
 The opera begins with darkness, end with light.
 Papageno starts to work for the woman’s world, end up in the men’s side. Monostatos does the
opposite.
Special
 Simplicity: score is easy to read; melody is easy to follow; harmony is pure
 No complicated orchestra accompaniment, more focus on singers.
 Construct an aria or an ensemble out of a sequence of events (Episodic Finales especially)
 “Sonata form” 😋
 Combined with Viennese popular songs, coloratura arias and buffo ensembles, recitatives and
ariosos, hymns, chorales and fugues.
 Magical, street-wise, spectacular and comedic elements. 😋(p.61)
 Each main character has one Aria except the Queen and Sarastro who have two Arias. 😋
Elements related to the late Enlightenment
 convey the cultivation of inner spiritual sphere of humanity which was neglected in
Enlightenment.
 Supernatural, mysterious elements.
 The story interprets how individual gains integration into society and achieve individuation.
How to define this opera?

Playbill: Grand Opera Published libretto: Singspiel Mozart: German Opera
Listening Examples
No. 7 Duet (Pamina and Papageno) P. 49
Key: Eb major
Orchestration: B-Clarinet, Bassoon, E-Horn, all String.
Form: Binary (A-A’)
 Free coloratura. (Die Entführung doesn’t have, because the emperor said “too many notes”)
No. 10 Aria and Choir (Sarastro and Priests) P. 81
Key: F major
Orchestration: Basset-horn, Bassoon, Trombone, Viola, Cello.
Form: Binary (A-B)
 Extremely low F for bass.
 Slow tempo creates the solemn atmosphere.
 Sarastro wants to solve the problem by pairing Tamino and Pamina.
No. 14 Aria (The Queen of the Night) P. 96
Key: d minor
Orchestration: Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, F-Horn, D-Trumpet, D and A-Timpani, all Strings.
Form: Binary (A-B)
 Extremely high register with the coloratura
 Because the plot is that if Pamina doesn’t kill Sarastro, the queen will be an outcast.
No. 8 Act I: Finale P. 51
 Large episodic finale (about 20 minutes) with a number of separate scenes which not necessarily
connected with others. It helps people to understand the previous scenes.
 Shows sequence of events with only one complete break in the middle between Tamino left the
stage and Pamina and Papageno enter. (Mozart linked scene 15 and 16 cleverly)
 Begin and end in the same key (same for in Die Entführung). Start in C major then modulate
many times, then return to C major.
 Long scene in recitative (expressive arioso, different with Italian accompanied recitatives) when
Tamino finds the Tempo of Wisdom. The orchestra plays the functions, provides rhythmic
impetus. (have an influence on later composer)
 The magical scenes
 Tempo changes frequently based on different characters and scenes.
Conclusion
 Innovation of opera writing
 Allow the music to be shaped by the words alone. Mozart has a hidden harmonic plan (no
melodic landmarks).
 Collaborate with one of his best librettists. The librettists of Die Entführung was not the best for
Mozart.
 Simplicity in music but complexity in connotation.
 Music perfect express the meaning of the words and the emotion behind the text.
Act 1: Finale
Orchestration:
Flute, G-Clarinet, Bassoon, C-Trumpet, C and G-Timpani, Trombone, all strings.
I. Arrival of Tamino at the Temple of Wisdom
II. Sarastros Judgement
Bibliography
Anderson, Emily. The letters of Mozart and His Family. London: Macmillan Reference, 1997.
Branscombe, Peter. Cambridge opera handbooks: W.A. Mozart Die Zauberflöte. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1991.
Buch, David J. “Mozart’s German operas.” In The Cambridge Companion to Mozart, edited by Simon
P. Keefe, 162-67. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Calder, John. English National Opera Guide 3: The Magic Flute. New York: Riverrun Press Inc., 1980.
Chailley, Jacques. The Magic Flute, Masonic Opera. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1971.
Eckelmeyer, Judith A. “Structure as Hermeneutic Guide to ‘The Magic Flute’.” The Musical Quarterly,
Vol. 72, No. 1 (1986): 68-73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/948106.
Keef, Simon P. Mozart in Vienna: the final decade. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Till, Nicholas. Mozart and the Enlightenment: truth, virtue and beauty in Mozart’s operas. New York:
W.W. Norton&Company, Inc., 1993.
Wellbery, David E. (2004). A New History of German Literature. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2004.

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Die Zauberflöte Handout

Historical and Compositional Background

 Pregnant Constanze and need money to support the family.

Librettist: Emanuel Schikaneder

😋October 7-8, 1791 to Constanze

How to define this opera?

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