You're viewing the archived Hearts Center Forum.

You won't be able to post, but you can still view old topics. If you want to post on our new forums you can do so here.


Hearts Center Forums

PrevPrev Go to previous topic
NextNext Go to next topic
Last Post 04/07/2012 11:34 AM by  Cathleen
The Magic Flute
 1 Replies
Sort:
You are not authorized to post a reply.
Author Messages
Sun Disc
Member
Member
Posts:545


--
04/03/2012 11:11 AM
    THE MAGIC FLUTE

    Discuss the mystic symbolisms present in Mozart's THE MAGIC FLUTE.





    What is Mozart telling us in this archetypal story?
    Cathleen
    Member
    Member
    Posts:52


    --
    04/07/2012 11:34 AM
    The following is excerpted from the book: "Mozart's The Magic Flute: Die Zauberflote," by Burton D. Fisher, Opera Journeys Publishing, Jul 1, 2005, as seen on Google Books.

    "The Magic Flute" story can be viewed as an archetypical story, possessing profound meanings. The Magic Flute is a fairytale emphasizing the moral struggle between good and evil; it is an allegory dealing with Freemasonry and its contemporary political struggles; it is a mythological this story possessing archetypical significance. "The Magic Flute" possesses Mozart's ingenious musical truthfulness: its noble music complements its story about man's spiritual growth, his progress towards wisdom and light.

    Mozart was a supreme musical dramatist who endowed "The Magic Flute" with his universally understood musical language: his music possesses a sublime power and it reaches deeply into the human soul and consciousness. Like the journey to wisdom, reason and enlightenment, for Pamina and Tamino, "The Magic Flute" provides a sublime magical adventure as it elevates his listener to a transcendent world through Mozart's incandescent music, music of unrivaled beauty.

    "The Magic Flute" story can also be viewed in terms of mythological symbolism: it is an archetypical story representing man's progression from nature to culture, or from instinct to reason. Joseph Campbell's popular interpretations of mythology confirm that in all civilizations, myth reflects man's collective unconsciousness. In most myths, the hero embarks on an initiation into manhood and maturity: he breaks from his blissful state with mother (nature, the physical source of being) and seeks the father (wisdom, culture, discipline and reason). In "The Magic Flute," Tamino is the symbolic and archetypical young mythological hero: he embarks on an adventure that becomes his initiation into maturity, that classic synthesis of maternal love and paternal reason.

    Footnote: The late Robert Donington, author of two impressive books which heavily rely on the discoveries of the 20th century psychiatrist Carl Jung, provided an illuminating interpretation of opera characters characterizations and stories from the point of view of consciousness and unconscious mythological symbols: "Opera & Its Symbols" (1990), and earlier, (Wagner’s) "The Ring and its Symbols" (1963).
    You are not authorized to post a reply.