Mozart’s final opera, a popular singspiel designed to both elucidate and entertain, is heavily influenced by Masonic ritual, imagery, and beliefs in personal growth and development. Enlightenment looks different for each character, but working together, they are able to celebrate victory over darkness at the opera’s end. However, in this land of the sun and the moon, not everything is what it seems! In this Enlightenment era opera, composed in a world where the search for truth and goodness was paramount, Tamino, Pamina, and Papageno seek the light over the darkness and endure trials to determine their worthiness to enter the Temple of Light.
Meanwhile, Tamino encounters Sarastro, who he believes to be evil after the warning of the Queen and her servants. Together, they reflect on the beauty of romantic companionship. Papageno, who is looking for love himself, promises Pamina that her true love is nearby. Meanwhile, in Sarastro’s kingdom, Pamina is threatened by Monostatos, but Papageno’s arrival scares the villain away. Papageno, who will accompany Tamino, is given a magic set of chimes. Tamino agrees to rescue Pamina from Sarastro’s clutches and is bestowed with a magic flute to aid his quest. Tamino, enamored with Pamina thanks to her portrait, is then approached dramatically by the Queen of the Night herself.
Showing Tamino the portrait of the beautiful Pamina, daughter of the Queen, the three ladies tell him that she has been captured by Sarastro, the Prince of the Sun. Three ladies, who announce themselves as the servants of the Queen of the Night, save him (though the comical bird catcher Papageno tries to take credit). In a mythical land between the sun and the moon, Prince Tamino is in quite the predicament: a giant serpent threatens his life.
0 kommentar(er)
