The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart showed from January 31 to February 3 at the UBC Chan centre. A friend and I had the pleasure of attending the very first viewing of the opera and seeing as it was my first experience at a live opera, we opted for seats close to the stage for optimal viewing. From the name of the opera and the feature picture (Queen of the Night) on the programme pamphlet, it was evident that we were about to watch a fictional story, likely with elements of magic and mythical creatures, not unlike the fairy-tale stories parents read as bedtime stories to their children today. Although, given that the opera was composed in 1791, a time in which children seemed to be less coddled, I expected the story to retain more of its darker elements.
A lovely overture started off the performance. With the orchestra out of sight and the actors still backstage, we had only the music to focus our attention on. The overture was undoubtedly a beautiful piece that contained in it a vast range of sound and colour; from high pitches to low ones, from grand fanfares to gentle melodies, from sprightly tunes to ominous ones, and so on. Despite the darker tones that arose from the use of a minor key, the overture ultimately ended with the major tonic key, an indication to me that the story to be told was ultimately a happy one. On top of this, there were a few instances in the overture where we first hear the sound of the magic flute. While its tunes were incorporated into the overture, its tunes seemed to be more of a glimpse of the magic flute from the story.
As the opera progressed, while there were many components of The Magic Flute that I enjoyed, admittedly, I was only able to appreciate it at a relatively superficial level. The music generally carried a light and cheerful tune, the humour was plentiful and accessible to virtually any audience (a feature characteristic of family movies), and the Queen of the Night’s solos were some of the best live vocal performances I’d ever had the pleasure of watching. Even still, The Magic Flute seemed more of an operatic version of a Disney movie than the towering work of art that it was meant to be. As with many Disney movies, the story was prone to arbitrary plot devices which quite frankly left me puzzled as to the moral of the story. For instance, why would the Queen of the Night select an evidently less powerful Tamino to bring back her daughter? Why was Papageno chosen as Tamino’s companion? Why were the weapons of choice a flute and silver bells? What were these references to Isis and Osiris? What exactly is the Temple of the Sun? Why were Tamino and Pamina required to undergo trials? What was Mozart trying to say?
Considering that I had a slew of questions after the curtains closed, I was convinced that I was missing a big piece of the puzzle that must’ve earned The Magic Flute universal acclaim. I was right. Upon further research, The Magic Flute turned out to be a story that is brimming completely and utterly with symbols (mainly masonic in nature), and is in of itself a symbol of Freemasonic initiation. In fact, as I re-watched recordings of The Magic Flute online (Performance at the Paris Opera, 2001), I noticed that the recurring key of the opera was in E-flat major, an apparent favourite key of the more musically-inclined freemasons.
Needless to say, many of my questions about the story were answered and my appreciation for the opera only grew as I re-experienced the story, the music, and the meaning behind each of Mozart’s and Schikaneder’s careful decision in putting together this work. On top of that, the shocking revelation of a hidden meaning in The Magic Flute spurred my interest in searching for music associated with Freemasonry or any kind of politically-driven music of the time.