''The Magic Flute Part Two'' (German: ''Der Zauberflöte zweyter Theil'') is a fragmentary
closet
A closet (especially in North American usage) is an enclosed space, with a door, used for storage, particularly that of clothes. ''Fitted closets'' are built into the walls of the house so that they take up no apparent space in the room. Closet ...
libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
, which is inspired by Mozart's ''
The Magic Flute
''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a ''Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inclu ...
''. Parts were published in 1802 by , but its final form was published by Goethe in 1807.
Development history
In 1795, four years after the premiere of ''The Magic Flute'', Goethe began to plan a sequel to Mozart's opera. Originally Goethe had envisaged his ''Magic Flute II'' for a great success on stage. But his working process was consistently interrupted, thus the development was protracted. Besides Goethe already stated worries about finding the right composer in 1795. Another negative factor was that
Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'', published his own sequel in cooperation with the composer
Peter Winter
Peter Winter, later Peter von Winter, (baptised 28 August 1754 – 17 October 1825) was a German violinist, conductor and composer, especially of operas. He began his career as a player at the Mannheim court, and advanced to conductor. When the ...
. Goethe's ''The Magic Flute Part Two'' was published for the first time by Friedrich Wilmans in 1802. The subtitle ''Draft of a Dramatic Fairy Tale'' shows its stage play character. In 1807 Goethe published the ''Magic Flute II'' as a fragmentary closet play. It differs from the earlier version with a longer plot and an
apotheosis
Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has ...
as ending. However, the main story is not completed. Notes and drafts of Goethe give insights in his previous plans and reveal opportunities for a much longer plot; but any reconstruction would be very speculative.
Literary criticism suggests that Goethe continued symbols and other ideas of his ''Magic Flute II'' in other works, especially his ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...
''. The mixture between opera and closet play is used in ''
Faust II
''Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy'' (german: Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil in fünf Akten.) is the second part of the tragic play ''Faust'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was published in 1832, the year of Goethe's death.
Only part o ...
'' at central points.
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...
even described Goethe's ''Magic Flute'' as a "small ''Faust'' ... where the Homunculus and the son are still one in the luminescent box".
Plot
;Scenes 1–2
:Monostatos reports to the Queen of the Night on an unsuccessful plan of revenge: As Pamina and Tamino were expecting a child, the Queen of the Night sent out Monostatos to kidnap the child immediately after delivery. But Monostatos only managed to put the child inside a magical coffin as he was interrupted by a strong magical power. Afraid of this power and Sarastro's approach, Monostatos decided to flee, but he took a moment to seal the coffin by the Queen's magic. Thus, the son of Pamina and Tamino should be sealed for all eternity. The second part of the curse is now announced by a Greek-stykle chorus.
;Scenes 3–4
:Then the scene shifts to the realm of the sun, where a group of ladies, according to the directions of Sarastro's wise men, keeps the coffin in motion to preserve the child from death.
;Scene 5
:Papagena and Papageno live in the countryside. But neither a golden waterfall nor the magic flute (Tamino's gift to their wedding) and glockenspiel, that enables roasted birds to fly directly into the mouth, can distract them from their sadness over not having children. A hidden chorus advises them to carry on, but to enjoy calm. Papagena and Papageno follow the advice.
;Scenes 6–7
:In the temple of Sarastro's priesthood the priests have gathered to welcome a brother, who was on pilgrimage for one year. According to the rules of the priesthood now they have to choose a new pilgrim from among the priests by lot. The lot falls to Sarastro.
;Scene 8
:According to an omen, Pamina wants to dedicate the coffin to the sun. Her entourage sets the coffin on an altar. After a prayer the earth starts shaking. The altar sinks together with the coffin into the earth. Pamina desperately stays behind.
;Scenes 9-11
:Papagena and Papageno find big and beautiful eggs in their home. Sarastro appears and helps with magical power whereby three children hatch out of the eggs. Then Sarastro informs them about the misery of Pamina and Tamino. After the disappearing of the coffin Pamina visited Tamino. In the moment they saw each other they fall into a periodic sleep from which they only awoke for a short time just to yield to despair. In this way they are cursed up to now. Sarastro calls Papageno and his family to visit the royal court. The jolly family and in particular the magic flute should help against the misery. Sarastro stays lonely behind and then climbs a mountain.
;Scenes 12–13
:Papageno and his family arrive at the royal court, where a group of courtiers welcomes them. Papageno spreads a good mood, but also jokes about the values of court society.
;Scenes 14–15
:Papageno visits the cursed couple and eases their misery by playing the magic flute. Priests appear, who herald the location of coffin and call the parents up to rescue their son.
;Scenes 16–19
:The coffin is in an underground vault surrounded by two guardians each of them has a spear and a lion on a chain. In this darkness, only lighted up by the coffin, the guardians have a mysterious dialogue about the mystery of life and the human straying between light and darkness, between mania and mania.
Pamina and Tamino enter the vault and shortly afterwards the Queen of the Night appears to call the guardians up to defend the coffin. The guardians start threatening gestures, but the parents and especially Pamina invoke the mother love. In this way the guardians are appeased and the Queen of the Night is forced to flee. Now Pamina and Tamino step closer to the coffin and the child hears the voices of its parents. Finally the coffin opens and the child rises up as a brightly illuminated genius, who also illuminates the heads of all others.
Context and interpretation
Epochal threshold
Already Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' apparently makes references to the moods of its time, that was influenced by the
Enlightenment and a revolutionary spirit. It stands to reason that the Queen of the Night as monarch represents the old values of the
Dark Ages, where the church and nobility possessed an undisputed supremacy; besides Sarastro and his brotherhood of the sun realm represent the Enlightenment and a civil order. But neither the system of the Queen is completely condemned, nor Sarastro's civil brotherhood is uncritical glorified. So the night realm produces the jolly bon vivant Papageno, while the sun realm creates the tortured soul Monostatos. Similar to the play also in reality old and new values tend to claim absoluteness, but are not absolutely right or wrong; like the civil leadership of the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
turned into
The Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
. Goethe could meant such value conflicts by the dialogue of the two guardians as they talk about the human straying between light and darkness, between mania and mania. Furthermore, Goethe's ''Magic Flute II'' shows numerous motifs of syntheses (like Papagena and Papageno have to use working and activity as well as enjoyment and calm to get children), that seems to suggest a use of both systems, instead of becoming absolutely obsessed by one.
Freemasonry and the mysteries of Isis
Both Mozart and Goethe were
Freemasons
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
. The last words of ''The Magic Flute'' are dedicated to the three ideals of Freemasonry (wisdom, strength and beauty): "Strength has triumphed, rewarding / beauty and wisdom with an everlasting crown!" These words proclaim the victory of Sarastro's priests and it seems reasonable that Sarastro's order of initiated is based on a Freemason order. The Freemasons of that time were very interested in myths and especially in mystery cults of ancient times, where the initiation into the priesthood was related with a symbolic death experience. In this way, the passing through the darkness by not shunning night, death and other dreads is an important motif of ''The Magic Flute''. Pamina's courage to face the death overcomes even the rules of the brotherhood and paves the way for her initiation in their male society: "A woman unafraid of darkness and death / is worthy and will be consecrated." Considering that the
mysteries of Isis
The mysteries of Isis were religious initiation rites performed in the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis in the Greco-Roman world. They were modeled on other mystery rites, particularly the Eleusinian mysteries in honor of the Greek goddesses D ...
are a theme in ''The Magic Flute'', then it is reasonable to recognize in the plot of the child in the golden coffin an allegory to
Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
' son, the sun god
Horus
Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the P ...
. Like the myth of Horus is based on the simple perception of the course of the sun, according to which the sun sinks into the ground in the evening and comes out of the ground in the morning, the child in the coffin is wandering on earth's surface, sinks into the underworld and finally raises oneself in the air. The final scene, where the luminescent genius is surrounded by two lions and flies up, reminds strikingly on pictorial representations of the sun god Horus at sunrise, who is also surrounded by two lions, the representation of the earth deity
Aker.
Preliminary draft of ''Faust'' and other works
In literary studies is stated that ''The Magic Flute II'' was the godfather of Goethe's very deepest symbols. Accordingly, numerous studies have discovered influences of ''The Magic Flute II'' in Goethe's other works and especially in his Faustian poetry, which is commonly considered to be the most important work in German literature.
''Faust II'': act 3
Most frequently is studied the genius of ''The Magic Flute II'' in relation to Euphorion of ''
Faust II
''Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy'' (german: Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil in fünf Akten.) is the second part of the tragic play ''Faust'' by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It was published in 1832, the year of Goethe's death.
Only part o ...
''. Euphorion, the son of Faust and
Helen
Helen may refer to:
People
* Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world
* Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress
* Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Helen, ...
, only appears in the third act, also called the Helen-act, which Goethe discussed with Schiller as "peak ... of the whole". Some general themes of the Helen-act with references to ''The Magic Flute II'' are also accumulating in Euphorion.
Euphorion
In regard to the plot of the genius, the comparison to the sun god ("like a miniature Apollo", line 9620) and the sun's course (into the underworld and up again) is strikingly in this short passage about Euphorion:
[George Cebadal: ''Goethe, Schiller und die verschleierte Wahrheit. Ein kleiner Beitrag zur Mysterienkultur in Goethes "Faust"-Dichtung und der Weimarer Klassik''. Norderstedt 2019. pp. 42–44.]
But suddenly he's vanished in a crevice of the cavern,
And it seems he's lost.
His mother grieves for him, father comforts,
I stand there, wondering anxiously, but there again's the vision!
Do buried treasures lie there? Robes embroidered all with flowers,
He has fittingly assumed.
Tassels tremble from his shoulders, ribbons flutter round his chest,
In his hand a golden lyre, like a miniature Apollo,
He steps happily to the overhanging brink: amazing.
And the parents in delight clasp each other to their hearts,
What's that shining round his temples? It's hard to see what's gleaming,
Is it gold and gems, or flames, now, of the spirit's supreme power? (lines 9613/4–9624)
Further related aspects
* Opera
:Goethe talking about the operatic part in the Helen-act: "The first part ... requires the first tragic artists, and the operatic part must be sustained by the first vocalists, male and female. That of Helena ought to be played, not by one, but by two great female artists; for we seldom find that a fine vocalist has sufficient talent as a tragic actress." – ''
Conversations with Goethe'' by
Johann Peter Eckermann
Johann Peter Eckermann (21 September 1792 – 3 December 1854), German poet and author, is best known for his work '' Conversations with Goethe'', the fruit of his association with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe during the last years of Goethe's life ...
, January 25, 1827 (translated by
John Oxenford
John Oxenford (12 August 1812 – 21 February 1877) was an English dramatist, critic and translator.
Life
Oxenford was born in Camberwell, London, his father a prosperous merchant. Whilst he was privately educated, it is reported that he was m ...
)
* Initiate of ancient mysteries and Freemasonry
:Goethe talking about hidden aspects of initiation in the Helen-act: "Let the crowd of spectators take pleasure in the spectacle; the higher import will not escape the initiated, as has been the case with the 'Magic Flute', and other things beside." – ''Conversations with Goethe'' by Johann Peter Eckermann, January 25, 1827 (translated by John Oxenford)
:As an explanation to read the Helen-act, Goethe refers to the
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are the " ...
in a letter to : "Eleusis servat, quod ostendat revisentibus." – Goethe's letter to Iken, September 27, 1827
* Synthesis of two opposing value systems
:As an explanation to read the Helen-act, Goethe refers to the big dispute between artists of
classicissm and artists of
romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
in a letter to Iken: "I never doubted that the readers for whom I effectively wrote would grasp the principal significance of the portrayal straight away. It is time that the impassioned dispute between classicists and romantics should finally be reconciled. ... Is it not from this high level that we can learn to appreciate everything in its true physical and aesthetic value, both what is oldest and what is newest?" – Goethe's letter to Iken, September 27, 1827, (translation of
Rüdiger Bubner)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Flute Part Two, The
Opera libretti
1802 operas
Works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Works based on The Magic Flute
Unfinished plays