The Magic
Flute
Synopsis
ACT I
A Deserted PlaceTamino, a handsome young prince, is fleeing a monstrous serpent. He calls for help and faints of fear. Three Ladies, attendants of the Queen of the Night, answer his plea and kill the serpent. They immediately lose their hearts to the handsome youth, but they relent to duty and depart to report this prophetic arrival to the Queen of the Night.
Tamino awakes. He hears the call of a panpipe and sees Papageno, a birdman. Papageno sings of catching birds and looking for a girlfriend. Papageno falsely brags that he was the one who killed the snake.
The Three Ladies again appear. They lock Papageno's mouth for lying and give Tamino a gift from the Queen, a portrait of her daughter, Pamina. The Three Ladies exit. Transfixed by the beauty of the portrait of Pamina, Tamino falls magically in love. The Three Ladies return and tell of Pamina's abduction by a powerful villain, Sarastro. Tamino vows to rescue her.
The Queen of the Night appears. She promises Tamino the hand of her daughter, should he manage to rescue her. The Queen and the Three Ladies disappear.
Tamino seeks hopelessly to unlock the mouth of the struggling Papageno. The Three Ladies appear again and remove the lock. They give Tamino a magic flute to aid him in his quest to save the Queen's daughter. To Papageno, who is commanded to accompany Tamino, they give a set of magic bells, to protect him on the journey. Tamino and Papageno note that they do not know the way to the evil demon's realm. The Ladies instruct the two young men to follow the advice of three young, wise, beautiful, wondrous boys, who will hover about them.
A Turkish Room
Three slaves gloat in the misfortune of their Moorish foreseer, Monostatos. He was to guard the Queen's daughter, but due to the complications of a foiled sexual advance, he was not able to prevent her escape.
Monostatos enters, having recaptured Pamina, and treating her brutally. She faints. Papageno enters. He and Monostatos see each other. Both run away, each thinking that the other is the Devil. Pamina recovers from her collapse. Papageno regains his composure and reenters the scene. He recognizes Pamina as the daughter of the Queen of the Night and tells of Tamino's quest to rescue her. She immediately falls eternally in love with Tamino. Papageno and Pamina ready their escape.
At the Portals of the Temples of Wisdom, Logic, and Nature
Escorted by the Three Boys, Tamino enters the scene. The boys encourage him that manly behavior and persistence will lead him to Pamina. The Three Boys exit.
Tamino tries to enter two of the temples and is turned back. Attempting to enter the last portal, he is confronted by a priest. The priest tells him that Sarastro is no demon, but a guardian of virtue. He adds that Tamino only has a chance of uniting with Pamina if he joins Sarastro's sun cult. The priest exits.
Tamino plays the flute, hoping to find Pamina, but the magical music enchants only wild animals from the surrounding area. They dance joyfully to the flute's melody. Tamino hears Papageno's panpipe and exits hoping to find him.
Papageno and Pamina enter the stage on the run from Monostatos. With his slaves, Monostatos catches up with Papageno and Pamina. Papageno plays his magic bells, which enchant Monostatos and the slaves into a euphoric dance.
Before Papageno and Pamina can resume their escape, they are overtaken by Sarastro and a ceremonious procession of his sun priests. Papageno is relieved of his magic bells. Pamina begs for mercy. Sarastro promises not to force her to love him, for he knows that she loves Tamino. He refuses, however, to grant her freedom. He tells her that her mother is subject to his power, that she (Pamina) should better follow a man's rather than a woman's advice.
Monostatos enters, now having captured Tamino and having taken away his magic flute. Pamina and Tamino see each other for the first time. Sarastro has Monostatos beaten for his advances on Pamina. The priests place hoods over the heads of Tamino and Papageno who are led away for purification before entry into the temple.
ACT II
A Ritualistic LocationSarastro and the priests enter in ceremonious procession. Bowing to Sarastro's counsel, the priests vote to allow Tamino to undertake the rites of entry into their brotherhood. Sarastro selects two priests to mentor Tamino and Papageno in their pursuit of virtue. The priests pray for the success of the initiates and, should they fail, that Isis and Osiris take them into their eternal care.
A Foreboding Place
The scene opens revealing Tamino and Papageno frightened, not knowing their whereabouts. The two priests Sarastro designated as mentors enter the scene and assign the first trail: Tamino and Papageno must be silent. They may see women but will not be allowed to speak.
The Three Ladies appear and try to dissuade the two from continuing the path to membership in Sarastro's brotherhood. They are driven away by thunder and lightning as the chorus of priests warns of desecration of the holy temple grounds.
The two mentor priests enter and congratulate Tamino and Papageno for having the survived the first trial.
A Chamber
Eaten with lust, Monostatos observes Pamina in her sleep. Rationalizing his behavior, he concludes again to attempt a forced sexual advance on Pamina. The Queen appears and drives him away.
The Queen presents a dagger she forged for the murder of Sarastro and orders Pamina to fulfill this mission. Pamina is instructed to recover the powerful sun circle, which is the source of Sarastro's might. The Queen assures Pamina that she will be disowned if she fails in this task. The Queen vanishes.
Desperate and torn, and thinking herself alone, Pamina declares herself incapable of murder. Having listened in on the plot to murder Sarastro, Monostatos tries to blackmail Pamina into rendering herself to him, but she refuses. Angered, Monostatos proceeds to wield the dagger on Pamina.
Before Pamina can be harmed, Sarastro enters and disarms Monostatos. Sarastro bans him from the realm of the brotherhood. Monostatos resolves to abscond to the Queen as he leaves the scene.
Pamina pleas that Sarastro forgive her mother for the murderous undertaking. Sarastro declares that vengeance is alien to the principles of his brotherhood. The Queen, he says, should finally fully accept her utter defeat and humiliation.
A Foreboding Place
Utter silence. The two mentor priests lead Tamino and Papageno, their heads covered, onto the scene. The priests instruct them to stay silent. They are to remain in this place until the sounding of trombones. Then they are to proceed in the direction indicated by the priests.
An ugly old hag appears and gives Papageno a cup of water, which he shuns as poor hospitality. She intimates to him that she is his predestined partner. He is horror-struck. He asks her name. Before she can answer, there is a blast of thunder and she disappears from the scene.
The Three Boys enter and bring a table full of delicious food and wine. They also return to Tamino and Papageno the magic flute and magic bells. The boys promise Tamino and Papageno victory if they remain courageous and silent. Papageno unleashes his voracious appetite.
Pamina enters the scene and is ecstatic to finally be united with her destined lover, but he does not respond to her. Knowing nothing of his vow of silence, she is crushed and declares that only death could soothe the pain of her unrequited love. She leaves in utter dejection.
Trombones sound. After struggling to separate Papageno from his food, Tamino exits. Only after having been threatened by Sarastro's lions does Papageno leave the scene.
A Ritualistic Place
The priests, in ritualistic ceremony, sing with solemn resolution that Tamino will successfully withstand his trials.
Sarastro has Tamino brought onto the scene and instructs him that he has but two trials to endure. He then has Pamina brought onto the stage and tells her, in the event of Tamino's failure, to bid her final farewell. Sarastro adds, however, that Tamino's success is probable, in which case the two would be reunited. Sarastro, priests, Tamino, Pamina leave the room.
Papageno enters but is blocked by thunder from leaving the room. His mentor priest enters and informs him that, due to his inability to keep the vow of silence, he will not be admitted to the brotherhood of Sarastro's sun cult. The priest also informs Papageno of the clemency of the gods... he will not be punished for his failure of the rites of initiation.
Papageno notes that his proclivities are not unique and says his greatest pleasure for the time being would be a good glass of wine and nothing more. The priest declares that his wish will be fulfilled. A glass of wine appears. He drinks and sings in his ecstasy (drunkenness) of his longing for a wife to make his life complete.
The old hag enters and approaches Papageno. In order to be released from these gloomy confines, Papageno agrees to take her as his partner. In an instant, she is transformed into the beautiful bird-girl, Papagena. They approach each other for an embrace, but, before this transpires, the priest sweeps Papagena away. Papageno is forced, at first, to remain behind.
A Garden
The Three Boys sing of the coming of the day and with it the advancement of humanity to loftier spheres. They find Pamina, driven to madness and preparing to take her life with the very dagger her mother forged for Sarastro's death. The Three Boys intercede and insure her of the immediacy of her reunion with Tamino. They promise to lead her to him.
A Mysterious Setting
Tamino is escorted onto the scene by two men in armor. They announce the trial of fire and water, through which one is enlightened, so as to understand the mysteries of Isis and Osiris.
Tamino readies to enter the trial of fire but stops upon hearing Pamina's voice. She enters the scene. The armored men allow Tamino and Pamina to embrace. The united pair resolves to undergo the trial together. Guided by the hand of love, and protected by the magic flute, Tamino and Pamina survive these final tests. A portal opens to the temple, revealing blindingly brilliant opulence. A chorus of priests revels in the couple's victory and invites them to enter the temple.
A Garden
Papageno is seen playing his panpipes, desperately searching for Papagena, but in vain. Deeply saddened, he prepares to hang himself. The Three Boys intercede and remind him to play his magic bells instead of the panpipe. He plays his bells and Papagena appears. The bird pair unites and sings joyfully of the prospect that the gods grant them the greatest of all blessings... many, many children.
At the Portals of Sarastro's Temple
Monostatos leads the Queen and her ladies to the temple's entrance. They are to destroy the temple and recover the powerful sun circle. The Queen has promised Monostatos the hand of Pamina, should they succeed in their destructive conspiracy. There is horrifying thunder and lightening. The Queen and her accomplices are foiled.
The entire theater becomes a sun.
Sarastro and his priests celebrate their victory over the Queen of the Night. They rejoice in Tamino's induction into the priesthood and in the union of the prince with Pamina.
THE DIRECTOR'S OBSERVATIONS
When I was in college, I learned criticism of opera as handed down through a long tradition of musicology. Among the things I learned were: Puccini is a second-rate composer; Falstaff is Verdi's best opera; and The Magic Flute has good music but a weak dramatic structure. Later, as I experienced opera from a more practical perspective, I could not help but question much of what I had learned. If Puccini was a second-rate composer, how could he have created the near flawless musico-dramatic theater of La Bohéie? How could the hectic patter of Verdi's Falstaff be the best work of the composer who achieved irreproachable excellence in combining the lyric and the dramatic in vocal lines like King Philip's "amor per me non ha"? And now, after having sung around 80 performances of The Magic Flute and having directed it for the first time, I am still looking for the weakness of its dramatic structure, and I don't believe I am apt to find it.
In The Magic Flute, Mozart and his librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder, created a veritable miracle. In the context of a joyous smile, they tell us through a musical narrative the nature of things. It is a cosmology, which posits that the essence of life lies is the energy of opposing forces, in a dialectical tension between night and day, woman and man, nature and culture, emotion and reason, odd numbers and even numbers, fire and water, etc. The true sensation is that it is completely unprejudiced and impartial; it is Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, but without the philosopher's polemic tone and biting cynicism.
I have concluded that it is precisely the impartiality of The Magic Flute, which has led critics to belittle its dramatic integrity. After all, when confronted with a theatrical work, everyone wants to be able to clearly identify the protagonist and the antagonist. Well, that simply is not possible in this opera. It is as if Mozart, who was very active in the shaping of his librettos, and Schikaneder wanted to tell us that the core truths of life are just not that simple. In the beginning The Magic Flute shows the Queen of the Night, a sorrow-riven mother, telling a young prince, Tamino, that her only child, Pamina, has been abducted by the magic of an evil sorcerer, Sarastro. Tamino embarks on a noble mission to rescue Pamina, but before he goes very far, he encounters a wise old oracle who tells him that he has been deceived, that only the purest of virtues lay in Sarastro's actions, that the Queen of the Night is nothing more than a power-hungry shrew whose motives are to selfishly rule the universe. So it would seem the battle lines are now clear -a classic struggle between good and evil.
But wait... at a second glance, something seems askew. It soon becomes evident that Sarastro is a slave holder and that he has his slaves beaten. It would seem to me that this would create a fundamental tension in his doctrine of brotherly love? Additionaly, when Sarastro tells Pamina, "I will not force you to love me," it makes it hard for me to believe that the abduction had purely altruistic intent. In terms of the Queen's rage, I find it perfectly human to react in such a way when robbed of family, love, and livelihood. She has essentially also become a slave of Sarastro and is fighting for freedom, something that I hardly find evil.
The relativity of good and bad pervades the work. Monostatos is obviously pathological in his notions of love. But he is a slave, beaten and closed out from any social interaction (as is evident in his name, "mono" "statos"). Now, it seems to me that we all know if you beat a dog and chain him up, you can alter his normal behavior and make him mean. I believe people react no differently. So where is the evil then, in the beaten (literal or figurative) being or the perpetrator of the cruelty?
By the end of the opera, Tamino has succeeded in all of the trials Sarastro has put before him, and he has won unity with Pamina, but to me he seems strangely sullen in this victory. In contrast, Papageno, Tamino's earthy sidekick, cannot achieve the lofty spiritual actualization that Tamino has won, but when all is said and done, Papageno and his new-found love, Papagena, appear to me to be the happiest of all. What does this say of the visceral and the spiritual, if happiness is an indication of enlightenment? Before the curtain falls, the chorus tells that the strongest party has won the fight (in the original text: "es siegte die Stärke") - in my opinion, a very revealing key to the core thematic material of opera and a penetrating conclusion about the human condition. We want to hear that the right one, the good one has won… not just the strongest.
Indeed, The Magic Flute confounds our need to stamp a seal of good or evil on the perceived dualities of the order of our existence, but when I view it as an impartial ontological paradigm of all that exists, I can only be astounded by the utter thorough soundness, clarity and efficiency with which this work expresses what are nearly uimpeakably complicated concepts of our being - and to top it off, it does it with a smile.
I hope you enjoy the show.
John T. Gates
