On this day in 1791, the first performance of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death. It is a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. It was Mozart’s last opera. It was an outstanding success from its first performances, and remains a staple of the opera repertory.
the Queen of the Night persuades Prince Tamino to rescue her daughter Pamina from captivity under the high priest Sarastro; instead, he learns the high ideals of Sarastro’s community and seeks to join it. Separately, then together, Tamino and Pamina undergo severe trials of initiation, which end in triumph, with the Queen and her cohorts vanquished. The earthy Papageno, who accompanies Tamino on his quest, fails the trials completely but is rewarded anyway with the hand of his ideal female companion Papagena.
Detail from Portrait of the Mozart Family, c. 1781
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What shall we name our business???
There are three good songs in Mozart’s the Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), and here is one of them: the Queen of the Night aria. Also known as der Hölle Rache, or the revenge of hell ^_^’ in this song, the princess has finally been rescued from the sun cult, but she has developed Stockholm syndrome and wants to go back and join them. Her mother, the queen of the night, tells her nope! Mom then asks the princess to kill Sarastro, the leader of the sun cult. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HEjAkFBBz0
