The World's Most Famous Operas — The Magic Flute

The World's Most Famous Operas

The Magic Flute

Music by: Wolfgang Mozart
(1756–1791)

Rendered into Arabic by: Samir Shikhani

An opera in two acts, produced and performed for the first time in Vienna in 1791

The Characters:

• Tamino: a prince
• Pamina: daughter of the Queen of the Night
• Sarastro: the high priest of the temple of Isis
• Papageno: a bird-catcher
• An old woman (later Papagena)
• The Queen of the Night
• Monostatos: a dwarf slave
• Three women: ladies-in-waiting of the Queen of the Night
• Three fairies
• Two guards
• Priests, ladies-in-waiting, slaves.

Time and place: Ancient Egypt

Act One

Scene One: A desolate mountain pass near the temple of Isis.

The curtain rises on the young Prince Tamino fleeing from a great serpent, the arrows in his quiver spent. He cries out for help, then falls to the ground in a faint. The ladies-in-waiting of the supernatural Queen of the Night appear and save him from his dreadful fate by killing the serpent, and they sit gazing at the handsome prince.

The sound of a flute is heard, and the bird-catcher Papageno comes on, blowing into his pipe and crying: "I am the bird-catcher." He is a simple, naive youth who earns his living by catching birds; he carries a large cage on his back and wears clothes made of leaves and birds' feathers.

Tamino awakes, and when Papageno makes certain the serpent is dead, he claims before him that it was he who killed it with his strong right hand. In a moment the three ladies appear and clap a padlock on Papageno's lips for uttering the lie.

They had with them a portrait of Pamina, the beautiful daughter of the Queen of the Night, and no sooner does Tamino's gaze fall upon it than he falls in love with her, saying: "How wondrously beautiful she is!"

The sky thunders, the stage darkens, and the Queen of the Night appears, ringed about with stars. She announces to Prince Tamino that Pamina was carried off by an accursed demon, and that ever since she has passed her days in grief and bitterness for the loss of her daughter. Tamino resolves to rescue his unknown beloved. The three ladies present him with a magic flute to guide and protect him. Then they approach Papageno, remove the padlock from his mouth, and give him some magic bells to protect him while he accompanies Tamino on his perilous mission.

Scene Two: A richly furnished room

Princess Pamina is a captive in Sarastro's palace, guarded by three slaves and an ugly dwarf named Monostatos. Papageno enters the room and moves about it, as afraid of the dwarf as the dwarf is of him... but

panic seizes Monostatos and he takes to flight, leaving Papageno alone. He approaches the sleeping princess and wakes her, telling her that Prince Tamino, who is pining with love for her, will set her free. At once Pamina falls in love with the prince, her unknown rescuer.

Scene Three: A sacred grove containing three temples — of Reason, of Nature, and of Wisdom.

While Prince Tamino is searching for Princess Pamina, voices reach his ears rising from the temples of Reason and Nature, warning him of the consequence of this act of his. But no sooner does he approach the middle temple, the temple of Wisdom, than a priest in a white robe appears before him and tells him that he is now within the land of the good Sarastro. The Queen of the Night had told him that it was Sarastro who abducted her daughter, and that he was evil. In vain does the priest try to change the prince's opinion of Sarastro.

Tamino hears the sound of Papageno's pipe and knows he is near, and hurries to meet him, while Papageno comes running in from the other side of the stage with Pamina in his company, the dwarf Monostatos and his slaves at their heels. Before they can be seized, Papageno remembers the magic bells; he rings them, and the musical strains that pour from them send his pursuers dancing away from him.

Then comes Sarastro himself, the high priest of Isis and Osiris, surrounded by his entire retinue, and he proclaims openly that he has kept Pamina captive in his palace because her mother, the Queen of the Night, was plotting a conspiracy to overthrow the priests and demolish the temple. But he warns Monostatos against mistreating Princess Pamina. Then he gives orders to prepare for the trial and the ceremonies that are to be held, and to dress Prince Tamino and Papageno in the special garments.

Act Two

Scene One: A sacred grove.

Sarastro and the priests are assembled, he in their midst, all in white raiment. Under a tree three priests question Sarastro concerning Tamino: his character, his power of self-command, his forbearance, his courage. Sarastro assures the company that Tamino is worthy, in every respect, of becoming a member of the sacred order, and then he intones the religious hymn "O Isis and Osiris!"

Scene Two: The court of the temple.

Amid thunder and lightning Tamino and Papageno await their first trial. Two of the priests put questions to them about their desires. All that Papageno wants is: sleep, food, drink, and a pleasant wife. They warn the two of the wiles of women, and counsel them to keep silent whatever may happen.

The real test begins when the two priests go out. The three ladies of the Queen of the Night come in and try to tempt them into renouncing Sarastro's principles. Tamino pays no heed to what goes on around him, while Papageno all but gives way, were it not for the prince's moral support. The world thunders and flashes with lightning, the ladies vanish in terror, and the priests enter and announce that Tamino has passed the first test.

Scene Three: The garden of Sarastro's palace.

Princess Pamina lies in the shade of a great fern, at the mercy of the dwarf Monostatos, who creeps toward her with exceeding eagerness. Suddenly the thunder crashes and the Queen of the Night appears at the back of the stage. Monostatos draws a little aside to watch, and the Queen of the Night sings her "Vengeance" aria and gives her daughter a sword with which to slay her enemy Sarastro. As she finishes the aria she vanishes amid the crash of thunder.

At once Monostatos leaps forward and wrests the sword from the poor princess, who is trembling in every limb with fear, and threatens her with death if she does not return his love. But she is saved by Sarastro, who orders the accursed dwarf punished. And Sarastro declares to the princess that vengeance, in

his kingdom, has no existence.

Scene Four: A spacious hall.
Prince Tamino and the bird-catcher Papageno are being tested anew, to learn their capacity for endurance, self-command, and silence. An old woman comes to tempt Papageno, who quickly surrenders to her and cries out with great joy when she tells him she has a sweetheart named Papageno. As for Tamino, he finds himself in an awkward predicament... his beloved Pamina comes in to him, but he refuses to speak a word to her, and she goes back the way she came, angry and heartbroken, lamenting her ill fortune and her lost love in the song "Ah, I feel it!" The trumpet is heard three times, the signal for the continuation of Tamino's and Papageno's trials.

Scene Five: The inner altar of the temple.
The priests enter, headed by Sarastro, chanting a hymn in which they implore Isis and Osiris. Tamino is about to be led to the inner altar to undergo his final trial, and Sarastro counsels Pamina to bid him the last farewell.

They vanish, and Papageno enters; one of the priests informs him that he has failed the first test. But he does not care, and all that he asks is a glass of wine. What he wants is given him, whereupon he longs to have a sweet, shapely sweetheart. In comes the old woman he had met before, declaring that she is his sweetheart and asking him to be faithful to her, and the good-hearted Papageno consents. Instantly the old woman is transformed, in the twinkling of an eye, into a beautiful girl clad in a dress of feathers. Papageno is on the point of embracing her when one of the priests intervenes: Papageno is not worthy of her — and he leads the girl off and away.

Scene Six: A garden near the temple.
Princess Pamina believes the prince has forsaken her forever, and she tries to put an end to her life with the sword her mother gave her; but the three fairies intervene in time and tell her that Tamino is undergoing his trial in the hope of being united with her, for he loves her still.

Scene Seven: Near the temple.
On either side of the stage stands a rocky cavern with a gateway latticed with iron bars; in the middle, a stairway leads up to a door guarded by two men armed to the teeth, who sing a song from which we understand that whoever wishes to share with Isis and Osiris their sacred mysteries must pass the trial of fire and water. Prince Tamino is brought in, and

hardly has he entered one of the doors when Pamina cries out, asking to share this trial with him. She lays her arm on his shoulder, and they advance through the left-hand door while he plays upon his magic flute. Tongues of flame leap up inside the cavern, and Tamino and Pamina pass through their midst without harm touching them. They cross the stage singing, while on the right-hand side of the cavern the waters pour down and gush forth in torrents. But the two lovers pass through in safety. Sarastro and all the priests greet and congratulate them, and lead them through the middle gateway into the temple itself.

Scene Eight: A garden.

Papageno enters with a rope ending in a noose, and announces that he is ready to hang himself, since life without Papagena is not possible. While he is devising ways of doing away with himself, the three fairies appear and save him as they saved Pamina before. They advise him to use his magic bells, which he had had all along. He rejoices at this with great joy and plays the tune "Let my beloved hear," whereupon a gigantic artichoke opens little by little — and inside it is the beautiful Papagena, waiting for him to sit at her side.

Scene Nine: Near the temple.

The Queen of the Night has massed all her forces outside the walls of the great temple in order to rescue Pamina, whom she has promised in marriage to the dwarf Monostatos. The Queen and her three ladies advance to storm the temple, torches in their hands. But a raging tempest, accompanied by lightning, breaks upon them; their screams rise high, and then they vanish into the bowels of the earth forever.

Dazzling rays flood the place. At the back the gilded temple appears, glowing; before it are gathered Sarastro and the priests in their white vestments, surrounded by a great throng of worshippers. Sarastro proclaims that the powers of evil have been routed, and all join in chanting the glorification of Isis and Osiris.

As for Prince Tamino and Princess Pamina, their devotion to one another and their steadiness of heart in the face of danger and death had been made manifest, and they were united forever. At the close the chorus sings the song "Peace be upon you, O truthful and faithful ones!"