1. Although the reference to future happiness is made directly to Tamino regarding his forthcoming association with Pamina, one can reasonably assume that the Queen also implies future happiness to her own daughter through the union as well.

2. The Priest discredits Tamino’s reasons for hating Sarastro because “a woman has so told [him]” but gives no reason other than gender for not believing the implied woman—the Queen of the Night (1.15).

3. Of course, it must be stressed again that we are examining the opera in a slightly distorted way by discounting the performance elements and musical logic that can create tensions with this reading. Nevertheless, the text must be taken into account.

4. In act 2, scene 8, the Queen interrupts Monostatos’s advances on her daughter, but the Queen barely notices him and certainly is unaware of what the audience knows from the previous scene. Upon her arrival, she simply dismisses the Moor.

5. Though the word Frömmler is often translated as “pious ones,” since the eighteenth century the verb frömmeln has come to mean fromm tun, to act or appear pious, which corresponds to the English word hypocrite. The German words Frömmelei and Frömmler have negative connotations implying an inward insincerity masked by outward pious behavior. See Fromm in Der Große Duden Band 7: Etymologie (Bibliographisches Institute AG: Manheim, 1963).

6. Similarly, our own wish to see Sarastro as a perfectly wise and benevolent ruler might make us less sensitive about slight ambiguities in his character. Compare Michael Evenden, “Sarastro’s Repentance: One Dramaturg’s Advice on The Magic Flute,” in this issue, 162–69.

Victoria A. Webb

BYU Studies Publications