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