The Magic Flute
This was composed in 1791 to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder
(Literally a sung play which has both spoken and sung dialogue)
The Magic Flute (German Die Zauberflöte) is an opera in two acts composed in 1791
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart .
The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue.
This fabulous Opera had its premiere in Vienna Austria on September 30th 1791.
It was premiered at the suburban Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden
Josepha Hofer (Mozarts sister-in law) play the Queen of The Night.
Papageno was played by Schikaneder himself.
The Magic Flute opened to critical acclaim and then played for hundreds of performances.
Mozart himself was taken ill in Prague but the success of the Magic FLute lifted his spirits.
Regrettably Mozart did not live to see the 100th performance of The Magic Flute although he was delighted with its success.
Nowadays The Magic Flute is as successful as ever and is one of the most beloved operas .
Both Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder were Masons and Lodge Brothers.
Mozart had become very involved with Schikaneders theatrical troupe and that troupe was the residen troupe
at the Theater auf der Wieden.He was also a close friend of Beneikt Schack who played the first Tamino.
They also collaborated on another opera The Philosophers Stone - a sort f Fairy Tale Opera with
the same cast in similar roles.
The Masonic elements of The Magic Flute are obvious and the opera is influenced by Enlightenment philosophy
It can be regarded as an allegory advocating enlightened absolutism.
The Queen of the Night represents a dangerous form of obscurantism,
whereas her antagonist Sarastro symbolises the reasonable sovereign who rules with paternalistic wisdom and enlightened insight
Mozart evidently wrote keeping in mind the skills of the singers intended for the premiere,
which included both virtuosi and ordinary comic actors, asked to sing for the occasion.[6]
Thus, the vocal lines for Papageno and Monostatos are often stated first in the strings
so the singer can find his pitch, and are frequently doubled by instruments.
In contrast, Mozart's sister-in-law Josepha Hofer, who premiered the role of the Queen of the Night,
evidently needed little such help: this role is famous for its difficulty.
In ensembles, Mozart skillfully combined voices of different ability levels.
A particularly demanding aria is the Queen of the Night's Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen
(The vengeance of hell boils in my heart), which reaches a high F6 (see Scientific pitch notation),
rare in opera. At the low end, the part of Sarastro includes a conspicuous F in a few locations.
While the female roles in the opera are assigned to different voice types,
the playbill for the premiere performance referred to all of the female singers as sopranos.
The casting of the roles relies on the actual pitch range of the part.
The Magic Flute is of course a difficult Opera for the Vocalists and many aspire to rise to the challenge
the parts entail.
Mozart was justifiably proud of his last opera and rightly so.