SCHEDULE

Tue   9 Jan    1. Introduction
Repertory

Thu 11 Jan    2. Der Stein der Weisen
 
Tue 16 Jan    3. Der wohltätige Derwisch
Theaters and repertory

Thu 18 Jan    4. Chapter 1. German Opera in Mozart’s Vienna
 
Tue 23 Jan    5. Chapter 2. The Magic Flute’s Libretto and German Enlightenment Theater Reform
Thu 25 Jan    6. Chapter 3. Emanuel Schikaneder and the Theater auf der Wieden

Music
Tue 30 Jan    7. Chapter 6. Enduring Portraits: The Arias [Eric Yu]
Thu   1 Feb    8. Arias [cont.] [Simon Brea]

Tue   6 Feb   9. Chapter 7. Ensembles and Choruses in The Magic Flute
Thu   8 Feb   10. Chapter 8. Musical Topics, Quotations, and References [Ryan Rogers]

Tue 13 Feb    11. Chapter 9. Instrumentation, Magical and Mundane [Elizabeth Hile]            First paper due
Thu 15 Feb    12. Chapter 11. Music, Drama, and Spectacle in the Finales [Elijah Bowen]

Tue 20 Feb    13. Chapter 5. Music as Stagecraft [Victoria Klaunig]

Meanings and issues 

Thu 22 Feb    14. Chapter 12. Seeking Enlightenment in Mozart’s Magic Flute [Tarje Grover]
 
Tue 27 Feb     15. Chapter 13. Exoticism and Enlightened Orientalism  [Mingfei Li]
Thu 29 Feb     16. Chapter 14. Sources, Types, and Tropes in The Magic Flute [Emily Lee]
 
Tue   5 Mar    17. Chapter 15. Pamina, the Queen, and the Representation of Women [Carson Hardigree]

Thu   7 Mar    18. Chapter 16. Blackness and Whiteness in The Magic Flute [John Cowan]

 
Spring Break

Performance 
Tue 19 Mar    19. Chapter 10. The Dialogue as Indispensable [Brant Ford]

Thu 21 Mar    20. Chapter 4. The Magic Flute in 1791

Tue 26 Mar    21. Chapter 20. Staging The Magic Flute [Katherine Barbour]                        Second paper due

Thu 28 Mar    22. Chapter 19. The Elusive Compositional History

 Reception
Tue   2 Apr     23. Chapter 21. Ingmar Bergman’s Film Version [Eugene Chin]

Thu   4 Apr     24. Chapter 17. A Cultural Phenomenon in an Age of Revolution [Seth Finch]

Tue   9 Apr     25. Chapter 18. Biography, Criticism, and Literature

Presentations 

Thu 11 Apr     26. Emily Lee: No. 21a               Katherine Barbour: No. 16                  Eugene Chin: No. 9
 
Tue 16 Apr     27. Seth Finch: No. 8a                Tarje Grover: No. 19                           Victoria Klaunig: No. 18
Thu 18 Apr     28. Elijah Bowen: No. 7             Carson Hardigree: No. 11                    Ryan Rogers: No. 8d
 
Tue 23 Apr     29. Simon Brea: No. 8b              John Cowan: Overture                          Elizabeth Hile: No. 12
Thu 25 Apr     30. Brant Ford: No. 6                  Eric Yu: No. 21d                                             Third paper due

GENERAL INFORMATION

Instructor: Prof. Daniel R. Melamed, dmelamed (AT) indiana (dot) edu.
Office: M325C, (85)5-8252. Office hours by appointment
Course Web page: http://mozart.melamed.org/  or  http://dmelamed.pages.iu.edu/M510-MozartZf-2024.htm

Aims and methods.  We will explore Schikaneder and Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte from many points of view: contemporary repertory, theaters, analysis, meanings and issues, the opera in performance, and reception.

Prerequisites. Proficiency requirements in music history (M501) and written music theory (T508).

Requirements. Reading, listening, score study; class attendance and participation; short written assignments; final presentation and paper.

Course text. Jessica Waldoff, ed.  The Cambridge Companion to The Magic Flute. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Materials and assignments. Readings, scores, and recordings are online. Daily assignments are on the course Web page; please check each time for changes and revisions. Note that many resources reside on Canvas but it is not necessary to log on there—everything is linked from the course page.

Attendance. Every student is expected at each class meeting; exceptions are only for illness or personal emergency. Please inform the instructor in advance if you are forced to miss a class. You should come equipped with materials (scores, posted handouts) and fully prepared to take part in discussions. There's no point in being in the course otherwise.

Grading. The course grade will be based on the written assignments and on active, frequent and well-informed class participation.

Expectations:

Written assignments: A—carefully prepared, edited, and proofread; substantively insightful.
                                  B—fundamentally appropriate but with problems in presentation or substance
                                  C—poor presentation or substance

Class participation:  A—frequent, insightful, respectful of others
                                 B—insightful but less frequent
                                 C—infrequent, poorly prepared

Disability and Religious Observance. These will be accommodated according to University guidelines (https://studentaffairs.indiana.edu/student-support/disability-services/get-help/accommodations/index.html and https://vpfaa.indiana.edu/policies/bl-aca-h10-religious-observances/index.html). Please speak with the instructor in advance of your need.

Academic conduct. You may consult and collaborate with classmates in preparing daily assignments. You may discuss written assignment topics and analyses with others, but all written work must be entirely your own. Every use of the work of others must be fully documented. If you violate the standards of academic conduct you will fail the course.

Guidelines for written assignments

Autograph score

Piano-vocal score (Simrock, c. 1793)   

MW score

NMA score

NMA KB

Vocal score

Libretto (critical text)  
Translation

Set numbers in proper verse forms

Outline

Arias

Eric Offenbacher collection at Harvard

Recordings

Score (also M2 .R286 v. 76 [Reference])

Recording: Pearlman

Cast
Outline
Arias

1. For background, please read the introduction by David Buch to the score.

  2. Listen to the opera and examine its text. What kinds of musical numbers are there? Who are the characters, and how are they defined musically?

3. How are the finales organized?

Study the opera, asking the same kinds of questions as we did about Der Stein der Weisen.

Text and translation

Synopsis (in the introduction to the score)

Score (also M2 .R286 v. 81 [Reference])

Recording: Pearlman

Outline

Arias

Some sources

Libretto 1794

Libretto Altona

Score M1500.W94 O3

Dorothea Link. The Italian Opera Singers in Mozart's Vienna. Urbana: University of Ilinois Press, 2022. Pp. 3-11.

Thomas Bauman. Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Chapter 1, pp. 1-8.

On the history of German Oberon settings, including Wranitzky's you can read

David Buch. Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests: The Supernatural in Eighteenth-Century Musical Theater. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. 2008. Pp. 290-5.

Martin Nedbal. Morality and Viennese Opera in the Age of Mozart and Beethoven. London: Routledge, 2017. Pp. 1-11.

On Ignaz Umlauf's Die Bergknappen you can review Chapter 1. Please study nos. 16-20.

Ignaz Umlauf, Die Bergknappen

Video excerpt (starts with no. 16)

Score (DTÖ)

Synopsis (Thomas Bauman, New Grove): Old Walcher (bass) opposes the suit of the young miner Fritz (tenor) for the hand of his ward Sophie (soprano), whom he secretly wishes to marry himself. After thwarting one rendezvous he ties Sophie to a tree. The gypsy Zelda (soprano) frees her and takes her place. When discovered, she reveals to Walcher that Sophie is his own daughter, stolen by gypsies. An attempt by Fritz to gain Walcher’s consent miscarries but when a mine shaft caves in on Walcher, Fritz rescues him and earns his blessing.

David Buch. Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests: The Supernatural in Eighteenth-Century Musical Theater. Chicago : University of Chicago Press. 2008. Pp. 287-312

On theatrical life in Vienna seen through two parodies of The Magic Flute and the process of censorship you can read

Lisa de Alwis. "Censorship and Magical Opera in Early Ninteenth-Century Vienna." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 2021. Chapter 3. "Travestirt und falsch: Two Viennese Parodies (1803 and 1818) of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte."

Chapter 6. Enduring Portraits: The Arias (Laurel E. Zeiss)

Please read chapter 6 and study the relevant arias.

For Tuesday: Arias of the Queen of the Night, Sarastro, and Pamina [Eric Yu]

For Thursday: Arias of Papageno, Monastatos, and Tamino [Simon Brea]

For those opening our discussions: Please plan on about 5 minutes. Give a brief statement of what the chapter covers and how it covers it; what main ideas about the topic it argues for; and what views it is explicitly or implicitly arguing against. Then pick one musical number and briefly show how it is treated in the chapter and what insights you (and we) gain from approaching the piece this way.

Arias by character

Set numbers in proper verse forms

On aria types and their relationship to characters in Italian opera buffa (of some relevance to our piece) you can read chapters 4and 5 of

Mary Hunter. The Culture of Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna: a Poetics of Entertainment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. [online] [ML1723.8.V6 H86]

John Platoff. "The buffa aria in Mozart's Vienna." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 99-120.

James Webster. "The analysis of Mozart's arias." In Mozart Studies, edited by Cliff Eisen, 101-199. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

James Webster. "Understanding opera buffa: analysis = interpretation." In Opera Buffa in Mozart's Vienna, edited by Mary Hunter and James Webster, 340-377. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

James Webster. "Mozart's operas and the myth of musical unity." Cambridge Opera Journal 2 (1990): 197-218. [Introduction and portion on arias, through p. 204]

Chapter 7. “All Together, Now”? Ensembles and Choruses in The Magic Flute (Nicholas Marston)

Read the chapter and study the text and music of the quintet no. 5. Make yourself a diagram of its textual, dramatic, and musical organization. Study Marston's analysis.

 The analysis he is reacting against is

Erik Smith. "The Music." In W. A. Mozart. Die Zauberflöte, ed. Peter Branscombe, 111-41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Older traditions of analysis are represented by

Alfred Lorenz. "Das Finale in Mozarts Meisteropern." Die Musik 19 (1926-27): 622-32.

Tim Carter. "Opera buffa and the Classical Style: The Act I trio." In W. A. Mozart. Le nozze di Figaro. Pp. 88-104. [on Figaro, No. 7]

Charles Rosen. The Classical style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Pp. 288-296. [on Figaro, No.  18]

Chapter 8. Musical Topics, Quotations, and References (Mark Ferraguto)

Read the chapter. In what ways is the concept "topic" useful to the study of The Magic Flute? What do you make of the long table of supposed influences and borrowings?

An alternative to the idea that the melody of "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" was borrowed is the suggestion that Schickaneder had a hand in writing it. See

David J. Buch. "Emanuel Schikaneder as Theater Composer, or Who Wrote Papageno's Melodies in Die Zauberflöte?" Divadelní revue 26/2 (2015). 160-7.

On musical topics you can read

Leonard Ratner. Classic Music: Expression, Form, and Style. New York: Schirmer Books, 1980. Pp. 1-30. [The original presentation of the analytical concept]

The first application to Mozart opera was in

Wye Jamison Allanbrook. Rhythmic gesture in Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro & Don Giovanni. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

For a (long) recent critcal presentation see

Danuta Mirka. "Introduction," The Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory.

In the same volume is a consideration of topics and opera buffa, especially the question of whether there is an opera buffa topic.

Mary Hunter. "Topics and Opera Buffa."

Chapter 9. Instrumentation, Magical and Mundane (Emily I. Dolan and Hayley Fenn)

On musical instruments in late eighteenth-century ensemble music you can read

Emily I. Dolan. "Instruments as Characters." In The Orchestral Revolution: Haydn and the Technologies of Timbre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp. 148-66.

Chapter 11. Music, Drama, and Spectacle in the Finales (John Platoff)

Study the finales of Die Zauberflöte and of Der Stein der Weisen.

On the construction of opera buffa finales you can read

John Platoff. "Musical and Dramatic Structure in the Opera Buffa Finale."  Journal of Musicology 7 (1989): 191-230.

For examples of solemn ("feierlich") music, listen to the opening choruses of these two Mozart Masonic cantatas:

"Laut verkünde unsre Freude" K. 623 

1. Chorus

"Dir, Seele des Weltalls" K. 429 

1. Chorus

Chapter 5. Music as Stagecraft (Julian Rushton)

For this chapter it's especially important to figure out the author's starting point and to infer his purpose. What do you make of the various topics he takes up?

The author makes many intriguing interpretive statements. What does he tend to base them on?

For an older view of, well, opera and drama, you can read

Joseph Kerman. Opera as Drama. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1956. Prologue and section on The Magic Flute.

Chapter 12. Seeking Enlightenment in Mozart’s Magic Flute (Richard Kramer)

Study the numbers analyzed in the chapter.

The best-known eighteenth-century discussion of Enlightenment is

Immanuel Kant. "What is Enlightenment?"

On recognition, a kind of enlightenment essential to drama, you can read

Jessica Waldoff. Recognition in Mozart's Operas. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. 3-43.

Chapter 13. Birdsong and Hieroglyphs: Exoticism and Enlightened Orientalism in The Magic Flute  (Matthew Head)

On exoticism in eighteenth-century music you can read

Ralph Locke. Music and the Exotic from the Renaissance to Mozart. Chapter 12, "Eighteenth-century comic operas and short dance works."

On the supernatural, you can read

David Buch. David Buch. Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests. Chapter 6, "The supernatural in the operas of Mozart."
 

Chapter 14. Partial Derivatives: Sources, Types, and Tropes in The Magic Flute

On Masonic interpretation of The Magic Flute you can read

David J. Buch. "Die Zauberflöte, Masonic Opera, and Other Fairy Tales." Acta Musicologica 76/2 (2004): 193-219

For a typical set of claims you can read

Joscelyn Godwin. "Layers of Meaning in 'The Magic Flute.'" Musical Quarterly 65/4 (1979): 471-492.

The extended claim for the opera as esoteric and Masonic is

Jacques Chailley. The Magic Flute Unveiled: Esoteric Symbolism in Mozart's Masonic Opera. New York, A.A. Knopf, 1971.

Chapter 15. Pamina, the Queen, and the Representation of Women (Jessica Waldoff)

On Enlightenment views about gender (especially about women) you can read

Dorinda Outram. “Enlightenment thinking about gender.” in The Enlightenment, ed. Dorinda Outram. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The Magic Flute in two well-known discussions of women in opera/Mozart opera

Catherine Clément. Opera, or the Undoing of Women, transl. Betsy Wing. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988. Pp. 70-76.

Kristi Brown-Montesano. Understanding the Women of Mozart’s Operas. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007. Pp. 81-106.