Magic Flute Guide

Mozart’s Musical

Game of Thrones

By David Buch

Although

The Magic Flute

is a rich and multifaceted

opera, it is a simple fairy tale at its core.

That tale concerns

the difficult stuggle of a young prince and princess in attaining the throne

of leadership. The magic of music helps them reach their goal.

We owe much of the opera’s charm to Emanuel Schikaneder, the

librettist, impresario, and singing actor who was the first Papageno.

All of

Schikaneder’s librettos offered an abundance of opportunities for fresh

and engaging music to please the Viennese audience, which included

connoisseurs such as Mozart himself.

Schikaneder created fantasy operas using stories from German fairy

tales.

He inserted comic scenes for the character that he himself would

be playing in the production—typically a simple but good-hearted

trickster. The royal protagonists of his stories, meanwhile, have to figure

out who is bad and who is good. That recognition happens later in the

story as the questions and problems of the early part of the story are

resolved through surprise developments or revelations.

The plot unfolds like a musical variety show of sorts, with heroic, comic,

and ceremonial styles blended in just the right proportion.

Funny or ironic

passages contrast with moments of lyrical beauty. There are numbers that

have a folksy cheerfulness to them with melodies styled after the popular

music of the day. These pieces have an innocent, playful quality found in

children’s songs of Mozart’s time.

The music is also full of lively dance rhythms of Mozart’s time.

Some are

from the formal dance styles of the nobility, used in connection with the

noble characters and ideas. Others are simple and cheerful, suggesting

more casual circumstances and characters. There are also more serious

styles of music, like the fast, virtuoso lines for the evil Queen of the Night;

the moving, poignant music for the royal lovers Pamina and Tamino; and

dramatic orchestral interludes. Mozart wrote for the orchestra in unique

ways, emphasizing instruments that heighten the dramatic and supernatural

aspects of the story. He gave special attention to the low strings, trombones,

and basset horns (a deep, mellow-sounding instrument related to the

clarinet—rarely heard today).

All these elements contribute to a non-stop, entertaining experience of pure

fantasy and otherwordly charm and beauty.

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Photo: TBD

The Three Boys costume sketch by Dale Ferguson