Yes, I should have written about this when I went to encore last year with my boyfriend, but my parents went to another encore of it last night, and we had a decent conversation about it. This isn't a review of the performance but an commentary on it.
The Hero is a prince named Tamino who when we meet him is being chased by a giant serpent and is saved by Three Ladies of the Queen of the Night. When Tamino comes to he meets a bird catcher, Papageno, who tells him that he killed the snake himself. At this the three Ladies padlock Papageno's mouth to punish him for telling lies. They then tell Tamino that they saved his life.
Then the Queen of the Night herself enters, and she tells Tamino to rescue her daughter, Pamina, who has kidnapped by Sarastro. Tamino agrees upon seeing a portrait of the princess and sets off to find her. The Three ladies then give him a magic flute to protect himself on his journey, and to Papageno they give a set of magic bells. But when the two men reach the Temple where Pamina is held, Tamino finds out that the queen is the one in the wrong and Sarastro is the good guy. And before the prince and princess can be united he must first be initiated. Confused yet?
It doesn't stop there. While Tamino passes the trials with no trouble, poor Papageno can't seem to do anything right. Wisdom and Enlightenment do not interest him in the least, especially since the priests insist that he must first pass the trials before he can get them. Papageno wants the simple things in life; food, drink, and a family. Of course he's told there's a pretty Papagena waiting for him, but he can't have her until he's past the trials. This of course causes much stress for Papageno.
Then you have the Queen of the Night telling Pamina to kill Sarastro or be disowned, and everything becomes more and more convoluted until the final scene.
Here's the main problem with the opera: Tamino isn't given much of a character at all beyond his wanting Pamina and Enlightenment. He passes the trials no issue and doesn't face that much adversity. Pamina is characterized as strong in our day, but she still has nothing beyond being in love with Tamino, though she does try to escape the Temple. The Queen of the Night has two amazing arias (which I love to death), but her total stage time is less than twelve minutes. She also suffers from rather stilted characterization. Sarastro is probably the flattest character of the bunch, being nothing more than a blandly benevolent platitude-spewer who doesn't do much. And then there's Monostatos, Sarastro's slave who is Always Chaotic Evil and wants nothing more than to rape Pamina. He does have a few comic moments, such as when he and Papageno scare each other, but he's not interesting at all.
Papageno is probably the only character in the opera with anything resembling characterization. He is a simple man who wants a quiet life. He is also a very good joker to Tamino's straight man. In fact, both Tamino and Pamina's best scenes are with Papageno. He has a harder time than Tamino because he cannot handle the trials, even when he'll be rewarded with Papagena. It doesn't help that she gets getting taken away from him. So we're all happy when he gets his Papagena in the end.
So why is this complicated mish-mash of a story so popular? Because Mozart was so good at composing music, he could make even the weirdest of plots riveting. No one goes to the see Die Zauberflöte for the story, they go to hear the Queen of the Night sing about Hell's vengeance and watch Papageno and Papagena making out before the grand finale. If anyone else had tried to write this opera it would have faded into oblivion. But Mozart was a musical genius and that is why The Magic Flute still survives.
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