Premiere: Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, Vienna, 1791
The Magic Flute is the Met’s abridged English-language version of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, a sublime fairy tale that moves freely between earthy comedy and noble mysticism. Mozart wrote the original opera, in German, for a theater located just outside Vienna with the clear intention of appealing to audiences from all walks of life. The story is told in a Singspiel (“song-play”) format characterized by separate musical numbers connected by dialogue and busy action, an excellent structure for navigating the diverse moods, which range from solemn to lighthearted, of the story and score. The composer and the librettist were both Freemasons—the fraternal order whose membership is held together by shared moral and metaphysical ideals—and Masonic imagery is used throughout the work. The story, however, is as universal as any fairy tale.

The Creators
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) died prematurely, three months after the premiere of Die Zauberflöte. It was his last produced work for the stage. (The court opera La Clemenza di Tito had its premiere three weeks before Die Zauberflöte, on September 6, 1791, though its score was completed later.) The remarkable Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–812) was an actor, singer, theater manager, and friend of Mozart. He suggested the idea of Die Zauberflöte, wrote the libretto, staged the work, sang the role of Papageno in the initial run, and even recruited his three young sons to the roster. After Mozart’s death, Schikaneder opened the larger Theater an der Wien in the center of Vienna, a venue that has played a key role in the city’s musical life from the time of Beethoven to the present day. The main door of the theater is called the “Papageno Gate,” a tribute to both men. For the Magic Flute, the Met called on director Julie Taymor to adapt her full-length production of Die Zauberflöte into a one-act opera to run during the holidays. American poet and librettist J.D. McClatchy wrote the English translation.

The Setting
The libretto specifies Egypt as the location of the action. That country was traditionally regarded as the legendary birthplace of the Masonic fraternity, whose symbols and rituals populate this opera. Some productions include Egyptian motifs as an exotic nod to this idea, but many more opt for a more generalized mythic ambience to convey the otherworldliness that the score and overall tone of the work call for.

The Music
Die Zauberflöte was written with an eye toward a popular audience, but the varied tone of the work requires singers who can specialize in several different musical genres. The comic and earthy is represented by the baritone Papageno, in his delightful arias “Catching Birds, Well That’s My Game!” and “A Cuddly Wife or Sweetheart”, with its jovial glockenspiel accompaniment. (The instrument was hardly trivial to the score, considering Mozart himself played it at several performances in the initial run.) Papageno meets his comic match in the “Bird-Girl” Papagena and their funny (but rather tricky) duet “Pa-Pa-Pa.” True love in its noblest forms is conveyed by the tenor Tamino (in his ravishing aria “This Portrait’s Beauty I Adore”), and the soprano Pamina (in the deceptively transparent “My Heart is Filled with Sadness”). The bass Sarastro expresses the solemn and the transcendental in his noble “Within our Sacred Temple.” The Three Ladies have much ensemble work of complex beauty, and even the short scene for the Three Spirits singing to the sunrise has a unique aura of hushed beauty well beyond the conventions of standard popular entertainment of the time. The use of the chorus is spare but hauntingly beautiful. The fireworks are provided by the coloratura Queen of the Night, with her first aria, “Be Not Afraid,” scarcely less pyrotechnic than the more famous “Hell’s Bitterness.”

Die Zauberflöte at the Met
This season the company performs the work in two versions: Taymor’s full-length production of Die Zauberflöte, sung in German, and its abridged sibling, The Magic Flute. The Met has a remarkable history of distinguished productions of Die Zauberflöte with extraordinary casts. The opera was first given here in 1900, in Italian, and featured Emma Eames, Andreas Dippel, and Pol Plançon. In 1941, a new production in English featured Jarmila Novotná, Charles Kullman, Alexander Kipnis, Friedrich Schorr, and a young Eleanor Steber as the First Lady. It was conducted by Bruno Walter, directed by Herbert Graf, and designed by Richard Rychtarik. The legendary 1967 production, with designs by Marc Chagall, featured Josef Krips conducting Pilar Lorengar, Nicolai Gedda, Lucia Popp, Hermann Prey, Morley Meredith, Rosalind Elias and Jerome Hines. The Mozart anniversary year of 1991 saw the debut of a ravishing production designed by David Hockney and directed by John Cox and Guus Mostart, with James Levine conducting Kathleen Battle, Francisco Araiza, Luciana Serra, Kurt Moll, and Wolfgang Brendel. The present production by Taymor, with sets designed by George Tsypin, costumes by Taymor, and choreography by Mark Dendy, opened in 2004 with James Levine conducting a cast that included Dorothea Röschmann, Matthew Polenzani, L’ubica Vargicová, Rodion Pogossov, and Kwangchul Youn.