Parallels between The Philosopher's Stone and The Magic Flute

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Parallelisms in The Philosopher's Stone and The Magic Flute

Production:

Story line:

Music:

1. Both are Singspiels - lighthearted opera in the vernacular German which includes spoken dialogue between musical numbers, akin perhaps to modern-day musicals;

2. The librettos for both operas were written by Emanuel Schikaneder - impressario, actor, playwright, composer- who also produced both operas for his Theater auf der Wieden;

3.Both were sung by the same company of singers and led by the same conductor.

Both were adapted from Christoph Martin Wieland's collection of fairy tales, Dschinnistan and therefore have similar story lines

- played out by: priests and kings, gods of goodness and evil, princes and princesses in love, a scheming villain/ villainess, mythical figures, and objects (Stone/Flute) with magical powers;

- revolving around themes of love and brotherhood among men and the triumph of good over evil,

- with a sprinkling of comical scenes,

- and ending in celebratory rites of passage.

The operas have parallel roles/voice parts - check these out:
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*Der Stein...*	*Die Zauberflöte*
... fremde Stimme	Dies Bildnis
Nadir (tenor)	Tamino (tenor)
Parallel coloratura passages
Astromonte* (tenor)	Queen of the Night* (soprano)
There are other character parallels:
(soprano) Nadine (baritone) Lubano (soprano) Lubanara (bass) Eutifronte	/ Pamina / Papageno / Papagena / Sarastro

Thus The Philosopher's Stone can be doubly appreciated - for its music and for the light it sheds on The Magic Flute - and indeed on masterpieces considered to be works of genius. Clearly the Stone was parent to the Flute, and Mozart, the musical genius, did not always work in isolation. The more famous Tamino/Pamina were foreshadowed by Nadir/Nadine, Papageno/Papagena by Lubano/Lubanara, and so forth. It can be said that in the "precursor" music of The Philosopher's Stone, composed by men not thought to be in his league, Mozart had a model for his masterpiece. Yet it may be that Mozart was really more involved than the "cat duet" and the two other short segments attributed to him in the Hamburg manuscript discovered by musicologist David Buch. Or, could it be that Mozart sometimes borrowed his friends' ideas? But those are questions best left for scholars to ponder. Our lot as amateurs is to just sit back and enjoy the cat's meow.... ooops!.... the MUSIC!

* Musicologists speculate that had Mozart's sister-in-law Josepha Hofer (who later sang the Queen of the Night) had not been on maternity leave at the time, the role of the beneficent god Astromonte would have been re-created for a soprano. The parallelisms in the two operas are discussed by Martin Pearlman, Director of the Boston Baroque on the third disc of the 3-CD set premiere recording of The Philosopher's Stone.

Audio clips from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte are from the recording by Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips 411 459-2 (1984). Tamino - Peter Schreier; Queen of the Night - Luciana Serra.

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