Libretto of The Magic Flute
Mozart employed a libretto written by his close colleague Emanuel Schikaneder, the director of the Theater auf der Wieden at which the opera premiered in the same year.
Grout and Williams describe the libretto thus: Schikaneder, a kind of literary magpie, filched characters, scenes, incidents, and situations from others' plays and novels and with Mozart's assistance organized them into a libretto that ranges all the way from buffoonery to high solemnity, from childish faerie to sublime human aspiration – in short from the circus to the temple, but never neglecting an opportunity for effective theater along the way.
The Schikaneder troupe prior to the premiere of The Magic Flute had developed considerable experience with performing fairy tale operas with similar plots, characters, and singers.
Two bear a particularly strong relationship to The Magic Flute: A very long tradition asserts that Freemasonry plays a major role in the content of Schikaneder's libretto.
[9] The simpler accounts of Masonic influence in The Magic Flute assume that Masonry provided a system of values, symbolism, and ritual for the opera, but no part of the narrative.
"[18] The opera's didacticism is concentrated in passages of poetry, set in the ensemble scenes, in which the characters cease to converse with each other and join in singing an edifying lesson to the audience.
Könnte jeder brave Mann Solche Glöckchen finden, Seine Feinde würden dann Ohne Mühe schwinden;
Nur der Freundschaft Harmonie Mildert die Beschwerden, Ohne diese Sympathie Ist kein Glück auf Erden Could but every brave man Find such bells, His enemies would effortlessly disappear;
O, holde Ruhe, steig hernieder, Kehr in der Menschen Herzen wieder; Dann ist die Erd' ein Himmelreich, Und sterbliche sind Göttern gleich.
Pamina, once convinced, ardently sings "Ich möcht' ihn sehen" ("I want to see him") five times; then after a brief pause the four characters sing: Zwei Herzen, die von Liebe brennen, Kann Menschenohnmacht niemals trennen, Verloren ist der Feinde Müh, Die Götter selbsten schützen sie, Two hearts that burn with love Can never be separated by human weakness.
[21] Ingmar Bergman in his 1975 film of the opera gave special treatment to the didactic poetry by having his characters hoist "a series of placards on which these moral sentiments are carefully lettered.
"[22] The passage quoted above beginning "Zwei Herzen" has attracted particular admiration: Heartz called it "the loveliest of all the opera's beautiful moments";[23] Abert wrote of "a paradisal radiance unique in this work".
Such critics generally do not defend it on its own terms (as if it could stand independently as a work of theater), but rather as a vehicle that served as a great inspiration for Mozart for composition, particularly in its assertion of high ideals and the portrayal of selfless love in the characters of Pamina and Tamino.
