60 Fun Facts About The Magic Flute

Who composed The Magic Flute?

It was his last opera, premiered two months before he died.

What is the German title of The Magic Flute?

Its Köchel catalogue number is K. 620.

Who wrote the libretto of The Magic Flute?

He also ran the theatre, and played Papageno himself at the premiere.

The Magic Flute is a Singspiel. What does that form combine?

It was a popular German form, unlike Mozart's Italian operas with sung recitative.

In which year did The Magic Flute premiere?

It opened on 30 September at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna; Mozart died on 5 December.

In which city did The Magic Flute have its premiere?

The theatre stood in the suburban Freihaus complex, which was free from taxation by a 1647 decree.

What relation is the Queen of the Night to Pamina?

She sends Tamino to rescue her daughter, but he ends up joining her enemy Sarastro's brotherhood instead.

How do the Queen's Three Ladies describe Sarastro to Tamino?

He turns out to be the benevolent ruler of the Temple of Wisdom, and Tamino switches sides.

What is Papageno's occupation?

His entrance aria is "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja", sung in his feathered costume.

In what disguise does Papagena first appear to Papageno?

She offers him a cup of water and says her boyfriend is called Papageno, then vanishes before giving her name.

What creature is chasing Tamino when the opera opens?

Three ladies kill it while he lies in a faint, and Papageno claims the credit.

How do the Three Ladies punish Papageno for lying about killing the monster?

He is left able only to hum, in the quintet "Hm! Hm! Hm! Hm!".

What do the ladies give Papageno for protection alongside Tamino's flute?

When he plays them, Monostatos and his slaves dance helplessly off the stage.

Tamino falls in love with Pamina after seeing what?

His aria "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" means "This portrait is enchantingly beautiful".

Who is Monostatos?

He and Papageno flee from each other on first sight, each convinced the other is the devil.

How many boys guide Tamino and Papageno to Sarastro's temple?

Three ladies, three boys and three temples: the number is a Masonic signature running through the work.

After the entrances of Reason and Nature turn Tamino away, the middle door that admits him is dedicated to what?

The senior priest who appears there is called The Speaker in the libretto.

Which two Egyptian gods does Sarastro invoke at the start of Act 2?

The aria and chorus "O Isis und Osiris" opens the council of priests.

What vow must Tamino keep during his first trial, causing Pamina to think he no longer loves her?

Her despairing aria in response is "Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden".

What does the Queen of the Night hand Pamina in Act 2, ordering her to kill Sarastro?

She threatens to disown her daughter if she refuses.

What is the German title of the Queen of the Night's famous Act 2 rage aria?

It translates as "Hell's vengeance boils in my heart" and is one of the most famous arias in opera.

What is the highest note the Queen of the Night must sing in "Der Hölle Rache"?

The vocal range spans two octaves from F4, with a very high tessitura.

In which key is "Der Hölle Rache" written?

At the climax the Queen sings a terrifying B-flat where the ear expects an A.

Which voice type sings the Queen of the Night?

The role's staccato high notes were written to show off Josepha Hofer's agile upper register.

Josepha Hofer, the first Queen of the Night, was related to Mozart how?

By one story the dying Mozart whispered along as she took her top F on his last night alive.

Sarastro's Act 2 aria declaring that revenge has no place in his domain is called what?

It means "Within these sacred halls", sung as he forgives the Queen's plot.

Which two elements do Tamino and Pamina pass through in the final trial?

They walk unscathed through both, protected by the music of the flute.

What does Papageno resolve to do when he thinks he has lost Papagena for good?

He counts to three ever more slowly until the three boys remind him to play his bells.

How does the reunited Papageno and Papagena duet famously begin?

An anecdote says Schikaneder shouted from the stage that the pair should stammer in astonishment, and Mozart obliged.

What happens to the Queen and her allies at the end of the opera?

Thunder and lightning end their plot to destroy the temple.

Mozart wanted Papageno's bells played on a lost "stromento d'acciaio". What is that usually thought to have been?

Modern performances usually substitute a celesta.

The overture begins with a solemn sequence of how many chords, linked to the priests of the temple?

The number three is highly significant in Freemasonry, and Mozart and Schikaneder were both Masons.

The overture's lively fugue is in which key?

Halfway through there is a false ending before the fugue resumes in E-flat minor.

Which fraternal organisation's symbolism is widely seen in The Magic Flute?

Some read the Queen of the Night as Empress Maria Theresa, who had banned Freemasonry from Austria.

Schikaneder was born in 1751 in which Bavarian town?

His parents were domestic servants and extremely poor; he was schooled by Jesuits in Regensburg.

Who conducted the orchestra at the 1791 premiere?

He wrote to Constanze on 7 October that the house was as full as ever and listed the encores.

Which 17-year-old soprano created the role of Pamina?

She had already sung Barbarina in the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro at the age of twelve.

Which bass sang Sarastro at the premiere, with a low range that Peter Branscombe says has been "the despair of many a bass singer since"?

He had earlier sung the demanding role of Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

Benedikt Schack, Mozart's close friend and the first Tamino, was what type of singer?

Mozart had contributed to the troupe's collaboratively written operas such as Der Stein der Weisen.

The Magic Flute reached its 100th performance in November of which year?

Mozart never saw the milestone; he had died on 5 December 1791.

Which fairy-tale opera of 1790, collaboratively written by Schikaneder's troupe with contributions from Mozart, is seen as a precursor to The Magic Flute?

The Philosopher's Stone used much the same cast in similar roles.

Papageno's whistle is thought to borrow a motif from a keyboard concerto by which composer?

The Papageno-Papagena duet also resembles a cavatina in Salieri's Prima la musica e poi le parole.

Which critic called The Magic Flute "a peerlessly silly masterpiece" whose libretto is "high camp"?

She still granted that the music was "sublimely lucid".

Who conducted the first complete recording of The Magic Flute, live at the 1937 Salzburg Festival?

Sir Thomas Beecham made the first studio recording with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1938.

Which Swedish director made a celebrated 1975 film of The Magic Flute for television?

He had wanted to stage it in his marionette theatre at age 12 but could not afford a recording.

Bergman's film was inspired by, and evokes, which 18th-century court theatre near Stockholm?

He had wandered in through an unlocked stage door as a boy and never forgot the restored baroque stage.

Kenneth Branagh's 2006 film of The Magic Flute relocated the story to which setting?

Stephen Fry wrote the English translation, and Papageno uses pigeons to sniff out poison gas.

In both the Bergman and Branagh films, Sarastro is given what relationship to Pamina that the original libretto does not state?

In the original the Queen says her dying husband handed the temple to Sarastro, a passage usually cut today.

Schikaneder went on to build which famous theatre, opened in 1801, where Beethoven later lived and Fidelio premiered?

He offered Beethoven an apartment inside the building to tempt him to write an opera.

How did Schikaneder's life end in 1812?

War and an 1811 currency devaluation had wiped out his fortune.

The Theater auf der Wieden, where the opera premiered, existed for only how many years?

In that time it hosted the premieres of some 350 works; Schikaneder then moved to his grand new Theater an der Wien.

What is The Magic Flute's number in the Köchel catalogue of Mozart's works?

K. 626 is the Requiem Mozart left unfinished at his death, just two months after the opera's premiere.

Who played Papageno at the 1791 premiere?

The librettist wrote the comic bird-catcher for himself, while Mozart's sister-in-law Josepha Hofer sang the Queen of the Night.

Which Viennese comic-theatre tradition does the role of Papageno draw upon?

The libretto also continued a run of fairy-tale operas by Schikaneder's troupe, including an adaptation of Sophie Seyler's Oberon.

Which Ignaz von Born essay is cited as a possible source for the opera's Egyptian rites?

Other suggested sources include Chrétien de Troyes's romance Yvain and Jean Terrasson's novel Life of Sethos.

Where was The Magic Flute first performed outside Vienna, in September 1792?

Prague followed; many early stagings elsewhere were heavily altered, even mutilated, versions of the score.

Where did Constanze Mozart offer to send a manuscript score three weeks after Mozart died?

Nikolaus Simrock's first full-score edition was published in Bonn in 1814, claiming to follow Mozart's own wishes.

Who conducted the first studio recording of the opera, completed in 1938?

He led the Berlin Philharmonic; the first known recording of any part of the work was a 1903 overture by the Victor Talking Machine Company.

Which later Wagner opera is often likened to The Magic Flute for its theme of trials?

Scholars stress that the work's central idea is not only love but becoming a better person by overcoming ordeals.

Which singer-composer in Schikaneder's troupe was Mozart's close friend and the first Tamino?

Mozart had already contributed to the troupe's collaborative 1790 fairy-tale opera Der Stein der Weisen, which used much the same cast.