Die Zauberflöte – New York New York

Elements of both classical comedy and tragedy are incorporated into Die Zauberflöte. In classic comedy, characters go through a spiral of downfalls and rises in a comical way throughout the duration of the piece. Characters suffer from internal and external conflicts; however in the end, everything falls into place and happens as it should. For example, Tamino goes through a series of obstacles to meet Pamina and vice-versa. In the end, both of the protagonists find themselves and each other in a process that was intended to be comical. To me, the storyline wasn’t comical but just silly and naïve. The whole concept of two complete strangers becoming enamored with one another even though they know absolutely nothing about each other is just ludicrous to me. Another thing that I found ridiculous was the power of the bells Papageno possessed. Why would bells be able to hypnotize the slaves and Monostatos into obedience and sudden dancing … just why bells out of all things? I couldn’t help but imagine the boys doing a monkey dance in response to the sound of the bells, and my immediate response was:

Tragedy is also incorporated into this opera; Pamina wanted to kill herself because she believed Tamino did not love her, and Tamino was willing to put his life on the line to meet Pamina. I know I may be taking this too seriously, but I just found it pathetic that Pamina was willing to take her own life just because she thought Tamino was not interested in her. She didn’t even know the guy and yet she was ready to take her own life… To me, it seemed as if Pamina represented the typical desperate girl that overthinks every encounter with a man – except in this case there was no encounter to overanalyze. Once again, my reaction was:

I couldn’t stop comparing this to your typical Disney fairytale or Pixar production while reading. Pamina reminded me of a damsel in distress locked away like Fiona; Tamino reminded me of Shrek; Papageno reminded me of Donkey; Papagena reminded of Dragon; the three fairies reminded me of the three fairies of Aurora; and the setting was synonymous with any fairytale. Overall, the Libretto was interesting to read and analyze, but unfortunately I cannot say I was too impressed…

krystalau says:

October 8, 2014 at 9:04 am

I totally understand where you are going with this, I agree with a lot of what you said. I thought it was really cliché how the story revolves around a male and a female who are in love with each other and they barely know each other, but yet one is willing to sacrifice their life because they love them so much. This reminded me of Shakespeare, especially Romeo and Juliet, which in my opinion I thought was stupid. I cannot imagined anyone falling in love like that, and I think its moronic to give up your life just because you cannot be with them or if they do not love you back. I think it is overly dramatic and unrealistic. I didn’t think of Shrek when I first read the script, but now that you mentioned it, the opera does seem really similar to the movie. I feel like there will always be these types of cliché fairytale types of stories, and sometimes it gets old, or sometimes people still seem to like it. There are times to me, it is nice just to watch these types of movies or plays, but it does get a little tiresome once in a while.

michalsudo says:

October 8, 2014 at 10:44 pm

Disregarding all the fantasy aspects I don’t think the story is too absurd, specifically considering your critique of it as it being ludicrous because of the “love at first sight” aspect. While the Disney movies share a common frame, and arguable this story is composed of that same frame, it is important to note that there has to be some exaggeration on the progression of a relationship or the audience would get bored. The same argument could be made for the seemingly unreasonable reaction Pamina had fearing that Tamino didn’t love her, if she just shrugged her shoulders indifferently and said “whatever” there would be no story, or if Tamino saw the portrait of Pamina and simply remarked “I guess she’s pretty good looking”. This goes to show the difficulty of writing a play, the story has to have an exact amount of surreal and exaggerated aspects that help captivate the audience all the while maintaining a realistic approach in a way that doesn’t result in the audience not being able to connect.