Elana Hedrych The Magic Flute/The Abduction from the Seraglio Essay
Sexism, racism, classism, and nationalist and xenophobic politics exist in Mozart’s great Singspiel opera works, The Magic Flute and The Abduction from the Seraglio, in both subtle and obvious moments woven through the material. Emanuel Schikaneder and Gottlieb Stephanie’s text alongside Mozart’s music illustrate characters with depth that are worth analyzing. The characters are multi-faceted, so even those that are represented as evil have an aspect of duality. In The Abduction from the Seraglio, Pasha Selim has no sung lines. Pasha turns out to be good, and represents light. In The Magic Flute, The Queen of the Night has a very outspoken vocal role, and represents darkness and irrational femininity. Carolyn Abbate writes that the Queen’s voice is a signal of absence of rationality, excess of passion, and “female speech,” as her star aria is filled with wordless utterances that fly up into the coloratura vocal stratosphere, unable to express in words. Clement states, “This is a losing song; it is femininity’s song.” The Queen’s metamorphosis is a sign of masculine aspirations, revealing a deep cultural anxiety about female rule. The Queen is darkness, the direct opposition to enlightenment. The Queen’s second aria is multiple aria fragments in one, with many vocal stylings. “It is cold,” as Abbate says, and not a sign of hysteria, rage, “feminine noise,” but very disarming to the listener, before returning to conventional operatic vocalism and speech, right before the end of the aria. Abbate notes that the Queen’s metamorphic capacities manifest in the second aria in two forms: the voice taking on many idioms without a gradual transition, and the voice taking on the form of an instrument. The balance between instrument and voice reflects anxiety about sexual fluidity and “the lost barrier between human and mechanical.” The differentiation of the morality of men versus the flightiness of women and the Other brings us to a possible aspect of transphobia, or fear of genders crossing perceived boundaries. The Queen of the Night as modeled on a man is hyper ironic. The sensation of instability in
Elana Hedrych The Magic Flute/The Abduction from the Seraglio Essay
sexual identity is characterized by the rage filled feminized man, or masculinized woman. Looking at common aesthetic preparations of The Magic Flute’s characters, Monostatos, while his original form was meant to be a white man in Black face, is frequently portrayed with clownlike makeup, long unkempt nails, a large chest enhanced with makeup, and unruly long or balding hair. While the Queen of the Night is a rage-filled masculinized woman, Monostatos is often represented as a feminized man, devoid of both power and love. Turning back to gender and the “other” in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Konstanze's demanding aria “Martern aller Arten” commands us all, and we are under her power completely. Gretchen A. Wheelock writes that Konstanze’s aria is "a demonstration of the strength of Western feminine virtue under siege by sinister forces of Islamic culture." The aria is dedicated to her turning down Pasha Selim’s advances and his threats of torture, as she attempts to persuade him to respect her promise to another. Konstanze cites that she’d die before being unfaithful to Belmonte. The loyalty of women is upheld to a high standard, and the text seems to imply the idea that women are in the possession of men, and Pasha would rather not wrong another man than respect a woman. While Pasha Selim is the noble savage, Osmin is framed as a brutal savage. In these works, depictions of the Orient (and people of color, and women) were crafted as Europe "wanted it to be" rather than "as it was.” The music and libretto of Seraglio is superior, victorious rhetoric of enlightened Western values juxtaposed alongside a disfigured reduction of Turkish Janissary music, both demonizing and exotifying the Orient. Even the two Turkish characters, Pasha and Osmin, are opposing in their Other-ness. Pasha is pictured as Westernized and enlightened with morals, Osmin is projected as an “animal,” unenlightened and devoid of morality.
Elana Hedrych The Magic Flute/The Abduction from the Seraglio Essay
Getting further into the social hierarchy envisioned in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Blonde triumphs over a violent, threatening Osmin. Her vocal prowess and assertiveness poses as a light against Osmin’s darkness. As these are both buffa characters, the comedic timing of singspiel often undermines the libretto’s misogyny and racism. Even yet, Blonde’s character has a duality. Her aggressiveness and refusal to stand down to Osmin’s threats forces him to submit to her, evoking a paradoxical role: Blonde, as a woman, embodies many of the Enlightenment values, yet these values are traditionally identified as powerful male characteristics. Berta Joncus notes that Blonde maintains her rationality through Mozart’s musical depiction of her, yet Stephanie’s writing seems to cast her as unreasonable, wild, and emasculating. Near the end of the opera, as Osmin has a fit over losing Blonde to Pedrillo, Pasha Selim jokes, “Old one, are your eyes not dear to you? I look after you better than you think.” In this situation, Pasha implies that he has saved Osmin from a partnership that would threaten his masculinity. In Blonde’s duet with Osmin, “Ich gehe doch rathe ich dir,” Berta Joncus writes: “Blonde overpowers her captor through the rationality of her music.” The duet does not have any characteristics of Turkish janissary-style music to isolate and other Osmin, and stays in 6/8. In the first section in Eb major, in a comical buffa style, Blonde, soprano, constantly interrupts Osmin’s orders, and then mimics and mocks his incredibly low bass register (mm. 41-59). In Joncus’ writing, she references, “Matthew Head rightly notes that Blonde here transgresses into the masculine and ‘marks the (vocal) limit of Osmin’s authority by alluding to . . . a point beyond which no voice can pass,’ thereby robbing ‘authority of its absolute and boundless character.’” Joncus notes that Blonde could not be cast as German due to the educated German woman’s absence from the Enlightenment dialogue.
Elana Hedrych The Magic Flute/The Abduction from the Seraglio Essay
Pedrillo easily convinces Osmin to go against his religion by drinking a generous amount of wine. It seems to imply that Osmin's adherence to morality and his respect to his religion and God is low, further turning him into that savage Other role. While Osmin’s questionable relationship to his religion has again proved his untrustiness and flightiness, Pasha is a Christian convert to Islam. It’s possible that this plays a role in shaping his character, and is the root of his "goodness." Monostatos in The Magic Flute is another depiction of a savage Other. His role, which is written to be a white man in Black face, reflects the deeply entrenched racial stereotypes of Enlightenment-era anthropology. Monostatos’ aria is unique in Mozart’s score. In allegro tempo, “alla turca” style (depiction of Turkish music) which is also found in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Monostatos vents about his frustrations and desires for love, as he prepares to assault Pamina. Monostatos’ opens up the aria with an odd five-measure unit, rather than the usual Western four or eight measure blocks. The second line is extended by two measures of a vocal tag, “Weil ein schwarzer hässlich ist,” which translates roughly to “Because black is ugly,” as he exclaims that he must shun love. Monostatos name directly translates to “standing alone.” His musical depiction certainly has him standing alone, and further intensifies his inequality and difference. The design and use of racial stereotypes were and are “vital to the colonialist world view,” as Malcolm S. Cole quotes. Related to the contradictions in Mozart’s operas and characters questioning the order of society, Catherine Coppola writes: “At first startled by the sight of Monostatos, Papageno shrugs and says, “Am I not a fool to let myself be frightened? There are certainly black birds in the world, why not also black people?” Before we judge that line, note that he admits ignorance and recognizes that a human can simply have black skin.”
Elana Hedrych The Magic Flute/The Abduction from the Seraglio Essay
In The Abduction from the Seraglio, there is yet another single Black actor role who appears in nearly every scene, and is seen standing alone - the non-speaking Black slave who is omnipresent, always listening, but never speaking. He seems empathetic towards Pamina in captivity. Osmin’s musical role also “others” him, as his rage is rendered comical by Mozart’s impression of “Turkish” music. In Osmin’s aria, the violations of traditional Western harmony evoke rage, as the harmonic unsteadiness and tempo changes strengthen that sense of instability. The instability and rage of the “other” in each opera is complimented by the instability and rage of the evil Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. While the Queen of the Night turns out to be evil, she rescues Pamina from Monostatos’ attempt to assault her. In this brief moment, a woman depicted as evil and dark is placed higher up on the moral hierarchy than a Black man. There is much to consider in both of these operas, especially with such nuanced characters and exceptional music. The staging of different directors varies greatly, and often leaves out more obvious controversial lines, but could never fully erase the sexist, racist, classist, and xenophobic messaging that is woven throughout the piece without destroying the piece itself. Challenging and discussing the dangerous rhetoric in hallmark pieces of art that continue to inform our culture, such as Mozart’s operas, is crucial to moving our culture toward true equity.
Elana Hedrych The Magic Flute/The Abduction from the Seraglio Essay
Coppola, Catherine. “Historical Residue or Modern Practice? In Defense of the Text for The Magic Flute,” 2020. Cole, Malcolm S. “Monostatos and His ‘Sister’ - Racial Stereotype in Die Zauberflote and Its Sequel,” 2005. Joncus, Berta. “Blonde and the Enlightened Female in Mozart's Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail,” 2010.