The Magic Flute Part Two


The Magic Flute Part Two is a fragmentary closet libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which is inspired by Mozart's The Magic Flute. Parts were published in 1802 by, but its final form was published by Goethe in 1807.

Development history

In 1795, four years after the premiere of The Magic Flute, Goethe began to plan a sequel to Mozart's opera. Originally Goethe had envisaged his Magic Flute II for a great success on stage. But his working process was consistently interrupted, thus the development was protracted. Besides Goethe already stated worries about finding the right composer in 1795. Another negative factor was that Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of Mozart's The Magic Flute, published his own sequel in cooperation with the composer Peter Winter. Goethe's The Magic Flute Part Two was published for the first time by Friedrich Wilmans in 1802. The subtitle Draft of a Dramatic Fairy Tale shows its stage play character. In 1807 Goethe published the Magic Flute II as a fragmentary closet play. It differs from the earlier version with a longer plot and an apotheosis as ending. However, the main story is not completed. Notes and drafts of Goethe give insights in his previous plans and reveal opportunities for a much longer plot; but any reconstruction would be very speculative.
Literary criticism suggests that Goethe continued symbols and other ideas of his Magic Flute II in other works, especially his Faust. The mixture between opera and closet play is used in Faust II at central points. Thomas Mann even described Goethe's Magic Flute as a "small Faust... where the Homunculus and the son are still one in the luminescent box".

Plot

;Scenes 1–2
;Scenes 3–4
;Scene 5
;Scenes 6–7
;Scene 8
;Scenes 9-11
;Scenes 12–13
;Scenes 14–15
;Scenes 16–19

Context and interpretation

Epochal threshold

Already Mozart's The Magic Flute apparently makes references to the moods of its time, that was influenced by the Enlightenment and a revolutionary spirit. It stands to reason that the Queen of the Night as monarch represents the old values of the Dark Ages, where the church and nobility possessed an undisputed supremacy; besides Sarastro and his brotherhood of the sun realm represent the Enlightenment and a civil order. But neither the system of the Queen is completely condemned, nor Sarastro's civil brotherhood is uncritical glorified. So the night realm produces the jolly bon vivant Papageno, while the sun realm creates the tortured soul Monostatos. Similar to the play also in reality old and new values tend to claim absoluteness, but are not absolutely right or wrong; like the civil leadership of the French Revolution turned into The Terror. Goethe could meant such value conflicts by the dialogue of the two guardians as they talk about the human straying between light and darkness, between mania and mania. Furthermore, Goethe's Magic Flute II shows numerous motifs of syntheses, that seems to suggest a use of both systems, instead of becoming absolutely obsessed by one.

Freemasonry and the mysteries of Isis

Both Mozart and Goethe were Freemasons. The last words of The Magic Flute are dedicated to the three ideals of Freemasonry : "Strength has triumphed, rewarding / beauty and wisdom with an everlasting crown!" These words proclaim the victory of Sarastro's priests and it seems reasonable that Sarastro's order of initiated is based on a Freemason order. The Freemasons of that time were very interested in myths and especially in mystery cults of ancient times, where the initiation into the priesthood was related with a symbolic death experience. In this way, the passing through the darkness by not shunning night, death and other dreads is an important motif of The Magic Flute. Pamina's courage to face the death overcomes even the rules of the brotherhood and paves the way for her initiation in their male society: "A woman unafraid of darkness and death / is worthy and will be consecrated." Considering that the mysteries of Isis are a theme in The Magic Flute, then it is reasonable to recognize in the plot of the child in the golden coffin an allegory to Isis' son, the sun god Horus. Like the myth of Horus is based on the simple perception of the course of the sun, according to which the sun sinks into the ground in the evening and comes out of the ground in the morning, the child in the coffin is wandering on earth's surface, sinks into the underworld and finally raises oneself in the air. The final scene, where the luminescent genius is surrounded by two lions and flies up, reminds strikingly on pictorial representations of the sun god Horus at sunrise, who is also surrounded by two lions, the representation of the earth deity Aker.

Preliminary draft of ''Faust'' and other works

In literary studies is stated that The Magic Flute II was the godfather of Goethe's very deepest symbols. Accordingly, numerous studies have discovered influences of The Magic Flute II in Goethe's other works and especially in his Faustian poetry, which is commonly considered to be the most important work in German literature.

''Faust II'': act 3

Most frequently is studied the genius of The Magic Flute II in relation to Euphorion of Faust II. Euphorion, the son of Faust and Helen, only appears in the third act, also called the Helen-act, which Goethe discussed with Schiller as "peak... of the whole". Some general themes of the Helen-act with references to The Magic Flute II are also accumulating in Euphorion.

Euphorion

In regard to the plot of the genius, the comparison to the sun god and the sun's course is strikingly in this short passage about Euphorion:
But suddenly he's vanished in a crevice of the cavern,
And it seems he's lost.
His mother grieves for him, father comforts,
I stand there, wondering anxiously, but there again's the vision!
Do buried treasures lie there? Robes embroidered all with flowers,
He has fittingly assumed.
Tassels tremble from his shoulders, ribbons flutter round his chest,
In his hand a golden lyre, like a miniature Apollo,
He steps happily to the overhanging brink: amazing.
And the parents in delight clasp each other to their hearts,
What's that shining round his temples? It's hard to see what's gleaming,
Is it gold and gems, or flames, now, of the spirit's supreme power?

Further related aspects

  • Opera
  • Initiate of ancient mysteries and Freemasonry
  • Synthesis of two opposing value systems