David W. Fenton wrote:
No one is a bigger fan of Mozart than I am. But I have always felt that the Magic Flute is incoherent *as an opera* (or Singspiel, technically speaking, I guess). If it did not have some of the most glorious music ever written, it would be a failure. But so far as I can tell, it's really just a string of great tunes held together by a rather incomprehensible narrative. That's not great opera, though it may very well include some of the greatest music ever written.It's a sort of difficult point to argue against, but that is certainly not the way Mozart's contemporaries felt about the Magic Flute. Goethe actually planned on writing a second part of the Magic Flute, and already asked the composer Wranitzki to provide the music. One might argue with his choice of composer, but nonetheless he obviously thought the Magic Flute was successful as a Singspiel.
Personally I don't think you need to know anything about Masonic Symbolism to understand and enjoy the opera. I am saying this quite confidently as my parents took me to see the Magic Flute when I was very young, and I loved it. In fact me and my sister were so impressed we started replaying the opera.
One just has to understand that the audience for which this piece was written was not necessarily the upper class Viennese, but a less educated audience, and for that audience the opera was immensely successful. That doesn't mean that I don't see your point.
But then the Freisch�tz Libretto is really bad (much worse than the Magic Flute), and still that opera was easily the most successful opera/Singspiel written in the first half of the 19th century.
Johannes -- http://www.musikmanufaktur.com http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de
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