Die Zauberflote

In the very beginning the protagonist, Tamino, is saved by three women who killed the serpent that was chasing him. Upon regaining his consciousness the three ladies are no long surrounding him, instead Tamino is greeted by a character that closely resembles a close friend or partner of a typical hero. This link can be made with Disney, Phil for Hercules, and even other standard comedies, Grumio from Taming of the Shrew.

The similarity is especially strong with Grumio as Grumio also had a tendency to interpret orders of his master in the most literal sense, oftentimes resulting in absurd responses.

“Sir! Whom should I knock? Is there any man has rebus’d your worship?” (I.ii)

 

What else resembles Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew is the intentionally misleading roles assigned to who we assume to be good and evil. The Queen of the Night, having saved Tamino from the serpent through her servants, gives the audience the impression that she is what on the “good” side. The sweet and beautiful daughter of Baptista, Bianca, is assumed to be purest of heart but she has a much darker side that becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses. Seemingly the ideal woman to marry, we find out that she is far from it as she is reluctant to even respond to her husband’s request to see her. It is only until Tamino is set on saving Pamina from the monster he presumes Sarastro to be does he find out that he has been tricked the the Queen of the Night. The misleading initial assumptions the audience is inclined to make add to the plot of the story and keeps the viewer guessing on what can happen next.

 

Like just about all Shakespearean comedies this opera follows the same formula; a main character that is put in a position of conflict and then has to make a journey, be it a physical journey or one of self-discovery followed by a resolution and a happy ending. While the story may be a bit formulaic in some sense the incorporation of a score alongside the libretto will almost certainly enhance the story and provide an experience that would be hard to compare to the classic Elizabethan play.