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opera The Devil to Pay, a huge
success in Britain, became a
success in translation in Berlin, in
the 1740s. Two adaptations of other
operas by Coffey inspired the
Leipzig-based Johann Adam Hiller,
regarded as the father of singspiel,
to begin his career in the 1760s.National genre
In the hands of composers such as
Hiller, Georg Anton Benda, Karl
Ditters von Dittersdorf, and Ignaz
Umlauf, singspiels were no longer
simply spoken dramas with musicalOPERA IN GERMAN
numbers added for atmosphere and
to convey character. In works such as
Hi l ler’s Die Jagd (“The Hunt”) (1770)
and Benda’s Walder (1776) and
Romeo und Julie (1776), the singing
parts became the dramatic core of
the piece. Official recognition
of such works as examples of a
popular and distinctively German
genre, to be encouraged in the face
of the all-dominant Italian opera,
came when Habsburg Emperor
Joseph II, a lover and patron of the
arts, established a short-lived
National-Singspiel company atFreemasons swear in a new
member in a colored copper
engraving of c. 1750. Mozart was
similarly initiated into Vienna’s
“Beneficence” lodge in 1784.Mozart and Freemasonry
On December 14, 1784, Mozart
was admitted to one of Vienna’s
eight Freemason lodges. The city
at that time had more than 700
Masons, including “brethren”—
then, as now, only men could be
Masons—drawn from the highest
nobility, officialdom, and even
clergy, but also from the ranks
of the middle classes: doctors,
merchants, booksellers, and
musicians, including Mozart’s
librettist for The Magic Flute,
Emanuel Schikaneder. For men
like Mozart, Freemasonry hadmany attractions—it offered a
free-thinking and enlightened
approach to religion; espoused
the virtue of justice, which for
many Masons meant active
opposition to abuses of state
and clerical power; and provided
a place where men of different
status could mix on terms
of relative equality. Mozart
remained a devoted Mason
the rest of his life and wrote
several pieces for performance
at Masonic occasions, notably
1785’s Masonic Funeral Music in
C Minor in memory of two of his
recently passed brethren.Vienna’s Burgtheater in 1778.
One of its biggest successes was
Moza rt’s The Abduction from the
Seraglio (1782).
In the spring of 1791, Emanuel
Schikaneder commissioned Mozart
to write another singspiel—this
time for the Theatre auf der Wieden
in Vienna, where Schikaneder was
the director. Oberon, the King of
the Elves, with music by Mozart’s
friend Paul Wranitzky, was a recent
hit for Schikaneder’s company
and an example of a new breed
of singspiel, sometimes calledThe Magic Flute’s characters expressed through music
The Queen of the Night
Soprano, whose vocal
dexterity culminates
in a staccato aria that
represents instability,
greed, and duplicity.Papageno (bird-catcher)
Baritone, who sings upbeat
and bouncy folk melodies
with prominent use of pan
pipes, suggesting his
happy-go-lucky nature.Tamino and Pamina
Tenor and soprano,
respectively, whose
romantic and deeply felt
arias represent enlightened
principles of light and joy.Sarastro (high priest)
Bass, whose slow and dignified
performance, with speechlike
delivery in parts and heightened
by grand orchestral flourishes,
suggests justice and wisdom.US_134-137_Mozart_Magic_Flute.indd 136 26/03/18 1:00 PM