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  • 7 - “All Together, Now”? Ensembles and Choruses in The Magic Flute

  • from Part II - Music, Text, and Action
  • Edited by Jessica Waldoff, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to <i>The Magic Flute</i>
    Published online:
    24 November 2023
    Print publication:
    02 November 2023, pp 119-131

  • Summary

    Until late in the twentieth century, formal analysis of Mozart’s operatic ensembles (chiefly those of the Da Ponte operas) was heavily skewed towards the invocation of instrumental models, and pre-eminently sonata form. Additionally, the pursuit of “absolute correspondence between the unfolding of music, text and stage-action” (Abbate and Parker) came to seem increasingly suspect. The Magic Flute is a Singspiel, rather than an opera buffa, and its ensembles are complicated by the existence of “ensemble characters” (the Three Ladies and Three Boys) who generally function collectively rather than individually. This chapter offers analyses of the Act 1 and 2 quintets and the Three Boys’ Act 2 terzetto, seeking to destabilize readings that appeal to models such as sonata rondo and reading tonal structures closely against libretto structure. Evidence from Mozart’s autograph informs the concluding discussion of vocal scoring in the Act 2 choruses and the final moments of the work.