Overture to The Magic Flute

Conflicting information, anecdote and legend all serve to obscure the truth about many of the events of Mozart's last year, 1791. The circumstances surrounding The Magic Flute and the motivation of its two principal collaborators, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emmanuel Schikaneder are no exception. Even the authorship of the libretto has at different times been called into question. An early biography suggests that by writing the music of the Magic Flute free of charge Mozart was helping Schikaneder, fellow freemason, actor, playwright and comic-theatre owner, out of financial difficulties. Any further profits from the sale of the score would go to Mozart if the venture proved successful. But it seems highly unlikely that Mozart could have afforded to do anything for nothing, given the evidence of his many begging letters to generous fellow mason Michael Puchberg from the same period. Of course this doesn't rule out a deal of some kind, nor the possibility of Schikaneder reneging on it, as the same source also alleged. However, it seems just as plausible to suggest that Schikaneder, perhaps prompted by the Masonic ideal of fraternity, was doing Mozart the favour, not vice versa. Whether it was an act of charity or simply an astute business move on Schikaneder's part, it seems ironic that this, the most financially successful of Mozart's operatic collaborations should prove to be his last, and that he did not survive long enough to benefit from it.

The opera's subject matter is no less a subject of conjecture, and it has never satisfactorily been explained why what started out as a magic fairy story, first envisaged as little more than a vehicle for Schikaneder's talents as a comedian, had developed into something more akin to a morality play, replete with sentiments of liberal humanitarianism and unmistakable Masonic symbolism. Doubtless this conundrum will continue to preoccupy academics for many years to come, but as is the case with masterpieces, the music is well able to transcend such considerations. Indeed, The Magic Flute's perceptive characterization and its brilliant synthesis of myriad operatic genres into a coherent musical whole lead some to consider it Mozart's greatest work for the stage, and the foundation of all subsequent German opera. Whether The Magic Flute is fairy story or morality, entertainment or enlightenment, allegory or political campaign, attempted Masonic proselytization or whatever (and all these and more have been suggested), it need not detract from our appreciation, any more than it did for those members of its very first audience who responded intuitively to its great music and set in train the opera's continuing success.

From the outset, the overture makes it clear that The Magic Flute is no ordinary singspiel. Three solemn chords, thought by some to be emblematic of Freemasonry, preface an eerie and tentative introduction, not entirely dissimilar to the primordial chaos depicted in Haydn's The Creation, which makes its way obtusely to the dominant. In contrast the Allegro that follows is a lively rhythmical fugue (thought to employ a theme from a sonata by Clementi (op. 43, no. 2 in B flat)). Mozart had learned well from his study of the works of Bach and Handel, adapting the contrapuntal skills he acquired with confidence and freedom to create a new, more contemporaneous sonata-style movement, in a similar spirit to the finale of his Jupiter Symphony. The exposition, for example, incorporates a section of thematic development before arriving at the dominant key. A dramatic return to the introductory chords (this time in the dominant) heralds the development proper, a real tour-de-force, characterised by restless harmony and frequent modulations. Mozart even breathes new life into the recapitulation, magically transforming familiar material with exciting new dynamics and counterpoint right up to the final dramatic coda.