The Magic Flute, Masonic Opera: An Interpretation of the Libretto and the Music

by Jacques Chailley

In this extraordinary book, Jacques Chailley has succeeded brilliantly in using research and minutely detailed textual study to solve one of music's most notorious mysteries and to disprove on of its most baseless libels.

Mozart's opera The Magic Flute is universally recognized as a great masterpiece - and almost as universally accused of suffering from an incomprehensible, if not silly, libretto. Professor Chailley fascinatingly demonstrates (with myriad examples from both the libretto and the music) that, far from making nonsense, the opera is crowded with the most profound meanings.

Having demonstrated the inconsistency of the legend according to which the "stupidity" of the plot resulted from a midstream change of plan, he displays the coherence of the opera, uncovers the interrelated hidden significance of its characters and situations, and relates them all to the great cosmic myths of the esoteric tradition from which they emanate.

Under the illumination so engagingly supplied by Professor Chailley, The Magic Flute emerges as it really a rigorously constructed theater piece in which Mozart's wonderful music and the libretto by Emanual Shikaneder (and others) fulfill and clarify one another.

This is constructive scholarship at its most readable best - in a book that is alive with the atmosphere of eighteenth-century Vienna and with fascinating men and women, from sages and royal personages to grimy scoundrels, who supply many curious sidelights on politics, music, literature, religion, and Freemasonry.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

347 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Mary Overton]

"And, as Goethe once remarked forcefully and succinctly to all the Papagenos of the succeeding century and a half: 'More knowledge is required to understand the value of this libretto than to mock it.'" (297)

"Far from being that 'fable pieced together like Harlequin's cloak' which, with complaisant scorn, it is still accused of being, the action of DIE ZAUBERFLOTE is a remarkably constructed symbolic story rigorously developed. In order to see it so, however, we must approach it on its own terms.... If the word 'Symbolist' had not acquired so precise a meaning in literary history, we could say that DIE ZAUBERFLOTE is, in its way, as 'Symbolist' as PELLEAS ET MELISANDE. In both operas, the events represented upon the stage are only images and reflections of an invisible reality that alone supplies the background for the real action. More here than in PELLEAS, all the logic flows from the linking of symbols, not from a psychology from which all realism has been eliminated. Like Debussy, Mozart applied all the force of his genius to the musical translation of those symbols: his music explores the words and the 'hidden words,' and is not content until it has used its magic power to the full. DIE ZAUBERFLOTE must 'transform the passions of men, fill the melancholy with joy, turn amorous the misogynist.' And because of it, the Man and the Woman, hand in hand, will be able to face Water and Fire, and thus to attain the illumination of the great syntheses of the Golden Age.
"Although the libretto is violently antifeminist in effect, it nonetheless attacks Woman only in order to exalt her transformation in the mystery of the Couple and so to restore the ideal of true love which the society of the period scoffed at so readily...." (294-5)

"...the action of DIE ZAUBERFLOTE turns essentially on the struggle between two antagonistic ideas symbolized by Day and Night, Sarastro and the Queen of the Night, Man and Woman. To say, as is common, that their struggle is that of Good and Evil, of Freemasonry and its enemies, is a simplification...
"Nowhere, in truth, is it said that the Queen of the Night represents Evil. Night is darkness, not wicked in itself. But it is the opposite of Day, and if the conflict becomes sharp, the creators well know where their sympathies lie. DIE ZAUBERFLOTE is essentially a symbolic illustration of that conflict between two worlds, the Masculine and the Feminine, the conflict to be resolved, after the necessary purification, by the new, perfect union in the Mystery of the Couple.
"But to reduce this analysis entirely to a sexual problem would be excessive. It is only one aspect of a view of the world which calls upon old traditions of esoterism." (92-93)

[Gionysius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very insightful, I learned a lot about operas, Mozart, and Freemasonry. Never read anything about operas or classical music. I am not classically trained altogether, but I try to educate myself. This work was made even more interesting because it gives a peek behind the curtain of a Master at work; how does a symbolic story come together and in what manner are the symbolic meanings cleverly though visibly disguised. It is a good lesson for an aspiring writer of symbolic fiction, such as myself.

My one problem with this book doesn't have anything to do with the content, but with the printing. Specifically the version that I own, the 1992 Inner Traditions publication. Merely opening the book makes the pages snap loose. I have to handle the book with great care lest the whole things falls apart. The spine is unbent, so that's not the problem. I guess it's the thickness of the paper they used, the book is American-fat even though it's just over 300 pages. I own books that have twice the amount of pages but are thinner.

[Janetdeshonhealygmail.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich in discussions about esoteric symbolism and Adoptive Freemasonry, Jacques Chailley's footnote citing Comte de Cagliostro's Egyptian ritual served as the first clue to unlocking the mystery of the ritual sources used for the opera. Chailley is one of few scholars, other than Cagliostro’s biographers, to discuss the possibility that Sarastro could be a tribute to Cagliostro rather than to the Illuminist Grand Master, Ignaz von Born. Highly acclaimed by French exponents on Masonic ritual and symbology his ‘extraordinarily elaborate' book is cited by Freemasons and French scholars around the world as a source on the opera. By today's standards, his interpretation is outdated concerning the women of the opera whom my research has proven to be Masonic.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather specific interpretation of the libretto, but AMAZINGLY informative.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredibly interesting and detailed look at Mozart's great opera, The Magic Flute, from a Masonic perspective. There is no doubt it was intended as an allegory for Masonic principles and ideals, but that has been watered down or ignored over the years until a belief has arisen that Mozart composed wonderful music to an otherwise poor libretto. The opera is an intensely detailed, deep, and metaphorical story that is not easily understood. This book goes through all of the parts, characters, songs, score, and symbols and puts them in their proper Masonic context and refutes a lot of the beliefs concerning this opera (i.e., that it is anti-feminine).

This book is kept from being a five-star rating simply because a goodly portion of it near the end (when talking about the individual songs and pieces) is so incredibly detailed musically (talking in terms of keys, notes, chords, and various sundry things) of which I have no knowledge, that I was completely lost.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was way too young when I read this to understand a damn thing it said. Need to re-read