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7 Die Zauberflöte, or the SelfAssertion of the Moderns 280 The Magic Flute was Mozart’s only major Viennese opera not sponsored by the court or prepared for the Burgtheater.1 The Theater auf der Wieden, in existence since 1787 and directed by Emanuel Schikaneder since 1789, was a modern capitalist venture that had a rich private backer rather than the state behind it. One of several suburban venues that had sprung up in the 1780s, it had a frequently parodic relationship to the court theater and furthered the Viennese tradition of popular entertainment with an eclectic repertory of spoken plays and operas in German. (The Theater an der Wien which replaced it in 1801, and still exists today, would in 1805 host the premiere of the first version of Beethoven’s Fidelio.) Capable of accommodating nearly one thousand spectators, it cultivated an eclectic audience to match, spanning the popular classes and the aristocracy. An extraordinary proximity of high and low culture determines the fundamental tone of The Magic Flute. The conjunction of the “Egyptian” mysteries of the Masonic religion of humanity with the Hanswurst clowning of the opera’s most memorable character, Papageno (the role created by Schikaneder himself), which was immediately noted, is epitomized in the Overture, where Mozart treats the patter of the comic bass with the learned fugal and contrapuntal seriousness of sacred music.2 This proximity of high and low culture has delighted and offended in equal measure ever since.3 A truly successful conjunction of the highest art with the genuinely popular is a rare and precious event in European culture. For the duration of the opera’s run, Schikaneder’s theater became the new Globe. Prince Tamino, assisted by the birdcatcher Papageno, embarks on a mission to rescue Pamina, the girl he loves and daughter of the Queen of the Night.Pamina has been abducted by Sarastro,“a powerful,evil demon” (ein mächtiger, böser Dämon), who holds her captive in his castle. The mission fails, as the would-be rescuers are discovered and arrested by Monostatos, a Moor who runs Sarastro’s security service and lusts for Pamina himself. Sarastro, however, turns out to be not an inhuman tyrant but a benevolent ruler and high priest in the temple of wisdom. Unwilling to force Pamina to love him, he surrenders her to Tamino. Had the story concluded, as well it might, at the end of Act 1, The Magic Flute would have repeated the plot of Mozart’s earlier 1782 Singspiel, The Abduction from the Seraglio, where the mission of Belmonte and his servant Pedrillo to rescue his beloved Konstanze from slavery in the seraglio of Pasha Selim is similarly thwarted by the Pasha’s overseer, Osmin, but ends well thanks to the Pasha’s magnanimity. But The Magic Flute does not end at this point. Act 2 serves as a sequel to the plot of Act 1, and the rescue opera is thereby transformed into a Bildungs-drama. If Act 1 replays The Abduction, Act 2 takes up issues from Mozart’s one great, serious Italian opera, Idomeneo of 1781. In Idomeneo a young prince, Idamante, and an enemy princess, Ilia, must go through trials that show them ready and willing to face death before they are found worthy of each other and can succeed to the throne of his father.(Idamante even manages to slay the monster which, at the beginning of The Magic Flute, had nearly destroyed Tamino .) In The Magic Flute Tamino and Pamina are not granted the facile, unearned happy end of Belmonte and Konstanze. Rather, like Idamante and Ilia,they must undergo trials,including the trial of separation,and overcome the fear of death to show themselves worthy of marriage, initiation into Sarastro’s brotherhood, and future leadership. What begins as a story of a young man attempting to rescue his sweetheart and landing in a situation from which he himself has to be rescued ends as a story of how two confused young people become mature, strong, and wise enough to earn a new life for themselves and their chosen community.4 Critics have long complained about the “break” in the story:the wronged mother turns out to be evil, the tyrant turns out to be good. But the break is not the problem; it is the point. The Magic Flute is about a reversal of values brought about by the passing of the old regime, in which the young and powerless...

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