Walter Meyer wrote:

>But there *are* no explorations of the human condition or of ideas or
>emotions in Magic Flute!  (Again, w/ the exception of Papageno.) There
>are only recitations of platitudes.  What could be more superficial
>than Tamino's falling in love w/ Pamina upon seeing her picture?

I think your statements are true if we allow for your point of view.
The continuing mystery of die Zauberfloete is partly due to the fact that
you can interpret it in many different ways.  To me the above idea is no
more farfetched than someone falling in love with Ingrid Bergman by looking
at her picture.  Naturally nothing would have come of that (even when she
was alive!), but it's the idea of love, and the idea that you can read a
person's character through their image, that has charm.  It is the charm of
all fairy tales.  You get to set reality aside for a few minutes.  People
have done Jungian analyses of the work (I am no longer a fan of Jung,
however), and the idea of falling in love with a picture fits in precisely
with Pamino as Tamino's anima--which he is projecting onto the picture.
I've been there myself dozens of times, and as a workaday explanation for
the phenomenon it's as good as anything else.

Then there's the symbolism of things-coming-in-threes (ladies, youths,
E-flat chords, etc.) of course.

>...Where in Magic Flute do we have an Elvira

I'm sure that's just a typo and you mean Zerlina.

>juggling a flirtation w/ the noble Don Giovanni while placating her
>fiance/husband Masetto and doing both convincingly?

If relating to the real world isn't really the point it's hard to criticize
the opera for being something it isn't.  What I'm hearing is that you need
some basis in reality in order to appreciate the plot.

>No, for me, Magic Flute is beautiful music sans the excitement of a good
>adventure tale, or even a cleverly told picaresque novel.

I would agree that it's the music that makes the work.  But the music also
makes it possible to enjoy the story, I think, which would be completely
inane without it.  Perhaps it's the music that makes up for the lack of
character depth and development that you perceive.  As characters, the
protagonists in MF are cartoons, icons that stand for certain
fixed...archetypes, to get Jungian again.  They have no life of their
own other than what Mozart chooses to give them.  But with the music,
it's like watering a seed and seeing it sprout into something beautiful.

Chris Bonds