Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests: The Supernatural in Eighteenth-Century Musical Theater »

David J. Buch is visiting professor in the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies at the University of Chicago.

Drawing on hundreds of operas, singspiels, ballets, and plays with supernatural themes, Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests argues that the tension between fantasy and Enlightenment-era rationality shaped some of the most important works of eighteenth-century musical theater and profoundly influenced how audiences and critics responded to them.

David J. Buch reveals that despite—and perhaps even because of—their fundamental irrationality, fantastic and exotic themes acquired extraordinary force and popularity during the period, pervading theatrical works with music in the French, German, and Italian mainstream. Considering prominent compositions by Gluck, Rameau, and Haydn, as well as many seminal contributions by lesser-known artists, Buch locates the origins of these magical elements in such historical sources as ancient mythology, European fairy tales, the Arabian Nights, and the occult. He concludes with a brilliant excavation of the supernatural roots of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni, building a new foundation for our understanding of the magical themes that proliferated in Mozart’s wake. 

Opera Today

"[Buch strives] to refute what he feels are the most common false assumptions about eighteenth-century opera, effectively arguing against those who have maintained that works with magical themes . . . are inherently less important than serious compositions. . . . His most valuable contribution, however, is undoubtedly the detailed and comprehensive discussion of the origins of the fantastic in eighteenth-century operas and stage works."

— Donald R. Boomgaarden

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

Introduction Precedents & Sources of Magic & the "Marvelous" 1

1 L'Academie Royale de Musique 43

2 Opera-comique 103

3 Italian Serious Genres 153

4 Italian Comic Genres 207

5 German Musical Theater 245

6 The Supernatural in the Operas of Mozart 315

Postscript: The Significance & Influence of Supernatural Topics 359

App. A Chronological List of Operas, Ballets, Comedies, Femes, Pantomimes & Other Plays with Magic & Supernatural Content, 1699 - 1791 363

App. B Selected Italian Circe, Medea & Orpheus Operas, 1700-1791 374

App. C Operas Based on Ariosto & Tasso, 1700 - 1791 376

App. D Some Eighteenth-Century Italian Don Juan Settings 379

App. E Chronological List of German Theatrical Works with Magic & Supernatural Content, 1728-92 381

Bibliography 389

Index 421