O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn

"O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" ("Oh, don't tremble, my dear son") is the first aria performed by the Queen of the Night (a famous coloratura soprano role) in Mozart's singspiel The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte).

In the preceding scene, Prince Tamino was shown a portrait of the Queen's daughter Pamina and fell instantly in love with her, singing of his feelings in the aria "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön".

The Queen then makes a dramatic entrance, preceded by the Three Ladies calling to Tamino "Sie kommt!

Durch sie ging all mein Glück verloren, ein Bösewicht, entfloh mit ihr.

Und werd' ich dich als Sieger sehen, so sei sie dann auf ewig dein.

There are five quatrains, of which the third is written in amphibrachic dimeter and the remaining ones in iambic tetrameter, which is the normal meter for The Magic Flute.

The soprano soloist (vocal range: D4 to F6) performs with an orchestra consisting of pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns in B♭, and strings.

The three parts of the Queen's discourse are set as musically separate items, each marked by a change in key: It is in the third part that the music reaches a high level of virtuosity for the soloist, including the following very difficult coloratura: It can be seen that Mozart aligned the text (dann) to give the singer the most sonorous and singable vowel "a" for most of the passage.

The highest note, F6, is claimed by a posthumous witness to have been mentioned by Mozart on his deathbed; the composer was (if the story is true) imagining his sister-in-law's performance.

It is not intended as a display of a singer's vocal prowess but of the Queen's character and as [in] Die Entführung ... coloratura is often synonymous in Mozart's mind with resolution and anger.