Stormy passion and fierce longing are the proper accompaniments to all youthful love, and the moderation with which Tamino keeps them in check gives at once the keynote to his character. His enthusiasm for an ideal, and his noble and intelligent mind, are opened to us in the fine recitative, and the calmer expression of love which follows completes the picture of character.
Benedict Schack, the original Tamino (b. 1758) was both musically and intellectually a cultivated man. He was a good flautist, and composed several operas for Schikaneder's company, which he joined as a vocalist in 1784. He had become very intimate with Mozart in Vienna. When the latter called for him, as he often did, to take a walk, he used, while Schack was dressing, to seat himself at his writing-table and compose little bits of the opera which lay there. Schack was equally famed for his flexible and metallically pure tenor voice and his artistic and refined execution, but he.was a very inferior actor.[ 50 ]
As the piece proceeds the love intrigue takes a peculiar tone from its association with the mysteries and with the ordeals belonging to them. Many allusions are made to the dignity of marriage as the consummation of righteous love, and this is apparently the sense intended to be conveyed by the oft-quoted ludicrous doggerel:—
Ihr (der Liebe) Zweck zeigt deutlich an,
Nichts edlers sei als Weib und Mann;
Mann und Weib, und Weib und Mann,
Reichen an die Gotter an.
The main points, how Tamino is to win Pamina by his PAMINA. initiation into the mysteries, and how Pamina comes to share his ordeals with him, are not made clear, since the love intrigue has originally nothing to do with them. Pamina,[ 51 ] at first contrasting with Papagena only as a gay, lively young girl whose higher nature has had no opportunity for development, shows herself in her true proportions when she approaches Sarastro with the pride and self-possession which denote her as his equal in dignity and sentiment. It is but for one short moment that the lovers first see each other, and by an irresistible impulse rush into each other's arms. This outbreak of passion falls so naturally into the rest of the movement, essentially different as it is in tone, that one is amazed that such simple notes can give so powerful an impression of jubilant emotion. Tamino and Pamina are separated at once, and are not reunited until near the end of the opera.
If Tamino may be said to be the expression of the enthusiasm of love as it awakes in the bosom of youth, Pamina may, on the other hand, be considered as the embodiment of the torment excited in a loving heart by doubt of the loved one's constancy. The spark which is kindled in her bosom by the sight of Tamino rises into an inextinguishable flame, and when his obstinate silence causes her to doubt his love, every hope of joy vanishes from her breast. It is not a difficult task for music to render the anguish of a broken heart, and the keener the pangs to be conveyed the easier it becomes. But to express with the utmost truth and intensity the deep grief of a maiden who has learnt to know her own heart by the first mighty pulsation of love, at the very moment when her hope is to be rudely dashed to the ground—this is the work of such a master only as the composer of the air (18) "Ach ich fühls."[ 52 ] Bitter pain DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE. speaks here—pain without hope of solace; the memory of a vanished happiness has not yet softened into regretful melancholy, nor is it sharpened by the lingering pangs of conflict and torment overcome; it is a pain as yet unconscious of its own force and intensity. All feelings are swallowed up in the one: "He loves me not, and happiness is flown!" When to this open and truthful expression of the anguish endured by an innocent heart is united the charm of budding maidenhood, we feel ourselves in the presence of a beauty which moves our inmost being, and which Mozart alone of all musicians is capable of rendering in song. The form and means of effect employed are of the simplest kind. The music follows the course of the emotions in a continuous flow, without allowing any definite motif to predominate. It is a very delicate touch which makes the same expressive phrase occurring in the major to the words, "nimmer kehrt ihr Wonnestunden meinem Herzen mehr zurück," recur in the minor at the close to the words, "so wird Ruh im Tode sein." The voice part is put very prominently forward, the stringed instruments maintaining the harmonies and the rhythm in the simplest manner, while different wind instruments (flutes, oboes, bassoons) give a sharper accent here and there. The orchestra becomes independent only in the closing symphony, expressing deep sorrow very effectively by means of its syncopated rhythm and chromatic passages. This air forms a decided contrast to the garden air in "Figaro" (Vol. III., p. 91), and yet there is a deep-seated relationship apparent in them. In "Figaro" we have the purest expression of happy love, flowing from a human heart without a disturbing thought. Here it is the unmingled expression of sorrow for departed love. The one has the soft warm glow of a fragrant summer night; the other is like moonlight shining on rippling waters; but in truth, purity, and beauty of musical rendering, the two songs unmistakably betray the mind and hand of one and the same musician.
Before the painful impression has had time to die away there follows the brief interview of the lovers in presence of Sarastro and the Initiated, as represented in the terzet (20).
Pamina, in her anxiety and doubt as to whether Tamino's love will stand the test imposed upon it, gives the tone to the whole piece. Her concern is not appeased by Sarastro and Tamino's consoling assurances, and not until the time for farewell has really arrived do the two lovers' parts unite and contrast with that of Sarastro. Then the expression of emotion is raised and purified, and indicated by touches of extraordinary delicacy and depth, as when Pamina's passionate outbreak—[See Page Image]
deprives Tamino of self-control, and he too gives vent to the anguish of parting, while she appeals to him in mingled joy and sorrow, and Sarastro remains inexorable; or when at the inimitably beautiful passage at the close the hearts as well as the voices of the lovers seem to mingle and flow into one. Here again we may admire the skill with which the ordinary resources of musical representation are employed to produce extraordinary effects.[ 53 ] Instead of feeling her anxiety set at rest by this interview, Pamina is more violently agitated than before. She now no longer doubts that Tamino has ceased to love her, and, deprived of all hope, she seizes the dagger which her mother has given to her to murder Sarastro, and prepares to plunge it in her own bosom. Thus, at the beginning of the second finale, we find her "half-frantic" under the protection of the three boys. Their presence has a moderating effect on her passion of despair, and Mozart has carefully refrained from giving to the thoughts of suicide excited in a maiden's breast by her first disappointment in love the same kind of expression as would belong to one who, exhausted by long strife with the world, had resolved to rid himself of life and his sorrows DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE. together. Thus, bold and energetic as the musical expression is, it never causes any distortion in the picture of a charming innocent girl, and this has a more tranquillising effect on the minds of the audience than the support of the three boys. In accordance with the situation the movement of the voices is quite free, generally declamatory, the interjections of the three boys holding the whole movement firmly in its groove. Pamina gives ready ear to the reassurance of the three boys, but, instead of breaking into loud exultation, her mind recurs lovingly to Tamino, and the music gains that soft pathetic tone which belongs to modern music. The supernatural element of the scene idealises it, and prepares the way for the solemn ordeal which is immediately to follow. Tamino, who has determined to tread the path of danger, but has believed he was to tread it alone, is agreeably surprised to find Pamina at his side. The reunion of the lovers is deprived, in face of the dangers which they are to overcome together, of every trace of sensual passion. Not until they are initiated into the mysteries for which they are undergoing probation can their love be justified or its enjoyment assured. The tone of the scene therefore is a serious one, rendered even solemn by the participation of the grave guardians of the sanctuary, who have just enunciated its ordinances. But the human emotion which irresistibly breaks forth adds a pathos to the solemnity and a charm to the youthful pair, filling us with renewed admiration for the genius which blends all these diverse elements into a living and harmonious whole.
