Magic and Enlightenment auf der Wiesen: Der Stein der Weisen and Die Zauberflöte

Abstract

This paper probes how the rational and the irrational interact in Enlightenment operatic plots, and explores the effect of this interaction on the Viennese public. To do this, I will investigate the fantastic worlds of two operas premiered by the same opera company, both with libretti written by Emanuel Schikaneder:Der Stein der Weisenoder Die Zauberinsel (1790)and Die Zauberflöte (1791). David J. Buch’s seminal book Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests (2008) explores the intertextual threads of magical ideas in Der Stein der Weisen and Die Zauberflöte, that is, how librettists and composers translated and reprocessed magical themes. I will draw on Buch’s comparison to show how these intertextual connections can be read for their broad cultural resonances. In this paper, I will first establish the connections between Der Stein der Weisen and Die Zauberflötein plot and in music.Then I will show how the later operadiverges from its predecessor and discuss how it manages to diminish the polarity of rationality and irrationality considered central to Enlightenment thinking. Ultimately, I argue, Die Zauberflötefacilitates its audience’s access to Enlightenment values by magical means.