Deconstruction of Die Zauberflöte

I’ve never been to the opera before, so I didn’t know what to expect before reading Die Zauberflöte Libretto. I found it quite humorous that the three ladies punished Papageno for taking credit about killing the serpent. Instead of bartering wine, cake and sweet figs in return for birds, the ladies gave him water, a stone, and a golden lock in front of his mouth so that he wouldn’t lie to strangers in the future. The portrait of Pamina that the third lady gave Tamino gave him emotions of love and reminded me of the song “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede for some odd reason. Now since I was thinking of this song, I started to think about Captain Hook from Shrek; which strangely ties back into The Magic Flute in which the Queen of Night asks Tamino to rescue her daughter from Sarastro’s castle. But after watching the video of Tamino’s aria about Pamina’s portrait, I knew that the melodies were vastly different to say the least.

I noticed a lot of overlap when the characters spoke. The opera has a call and response rhythm to it. For example, the three ladies say “Three boys, young, beautiful, gracious, and wise, will accompany you on your journey. They will be your guides, follow nothing but their advice.” Then, Tamino and Papageno repeat what they said in response, possibly trying to convey that they understand what they must do. It’s funny how all Papageno had to do to immobilize Monostatos from chasing after them was play a couple of notes on his magical glockenspiel. He’s almost hypnotized by the music to start singing and dancing, like Chandler from Friends:

Since Tamino cannot fulfill the Queen of Night’s wishes, she leaves it up to her daughter Pamina to kill Sarastro, otherwise she will be disowned and forever abandoned. Monostatos was eavesdropping on their conversation and provides Pamina with an unordinary solution: to love him! I feel like this came out of nowhere!

As Tamino and Papageno continued the trials, I was reminded of the relationship between Shrek and Donkey: Tamino (Shrek) is in charge and tells Papageno (Donkey) what to do, who cannot keep his mouth shut, even when his life is depending on it.

Overall, I’m looking forward to seeing The Magical Flute so that my imagination doesn’t take off and start to involuntarily make associations between things that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. It will be great to say afterwards that I attended the opera and actually used proper terminology to describe my thoughts about the show.

Bethany Freynk says:

October 8, 2014 at 12:01 am

Your comparison between this opera and the movie Shrek is both genius and hilarious. I noticed the cliche “Prince Charming saves the Princess” theme while reading the Libretto, but I did not realize how closely the chronology resembled the Shrek series. Papageno is a lot like Donkey in his constant need to talk needlessly and Tamino is the fearless hero, who remains in charge of the situation. Also, the two characters were not aquantences before the beginnning of the story, similar to Shrek and Donkey who did not get along in the beginning of the movie. Also, I agree that parts of the play are random, like when Monostatos declared his love for Pamina or when the three boys constantly appear out of nowhere throughout the Libretto. I cannot wait to see the cast begin to dance spontaneously as the flute begins to play. Even though I have seen a couple of operas before, I am equally excited to see this dramatic journey come to life on the Metropolitan Opera stage.

j96lee says:

October 8, 2014 at 12:08 am

I found your comparison between the opera and Shrek very amusing and I cannot disagree. Papageno was like Tamino’s sidekick. I personally found Papageno just as annoying as Donkey from Shrek. I was also shocked with Monostatos’ constant attempts for Pamina’s attention and love. I was most startled at the ending, when it was revealed that the Queen of the Night had promised to marry Pamina with Monostatos.