For today’s music, let’s have something that’s pure sprightly fun, and has birds. This is Papageno’s first aria, “Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja”, from W.A. Mozart’s 1791 opera Die Zauberflöte (Eng.: “The Birdcatcher am I”, from The Magic Flute):

(You’ll want to watch it full-screen, since the capture quality isn’t terribly great.) Papageno is here played by baritone Simon Keenlyside. Here’s the text, with an English translation (excerpted from the German and English libretti at the Swiss opera site Opera Guide*:

Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja,
Stets lustig, heissa! hopsasa!
Der Vogelfänger ist bekannt
Bey Alt und Jung im ganzen Land.
Weiss mit dem Locken umzugeh’n,
Und mich aufs Pfeifen zu versteh’n.
Drum kann ich froh und lustig seyn;
Denn alle Vögel sind ja mein.

Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja,
Stets lustig, heissa! hopsasa!
Der Vogelfänger ist bekannt,
Bey Alt und Jung im ganzen Land.
Ein Netz für Mädchen möchte ich;
Ich fing’ sie dutzendweis für mich.
Dann sperrte sie bey mir ein,
Und alle Mäd en wären mein.

Wenn alle Mädchen wären mein
So tauschte ich brav Zukker ein,
Die welche mir am liebsten wär,
Der geb ich gleich den Zukker her,
Und küsste sie mich zärtlich dann,
Wär sie mein Weib und ich ihr Mann.
Sie schlief an meiner Seite ein,
Ich wiegte wie ein Kind sie ein.

Eng.:
The bird-catcher, that’s me,
always cheerful, hip hooray!
As a bird-catcher I’m known
to young and old throughout the land.
I know how to set about luring
and how to be good at piping.
That’s why I can be merry and cheerful,
for all the birds are surely mine.

The bird-catcher, that’s me,
always cheerful, hip hooray!
As a bird-catcher I’m known
to young and old throughout the land.
I’d like a net for girls,
I’d catch them for myself by the dozen!
Then I’d lock them up with me,
and all the girls would be mine.

If all the girls were mine,
I’d barter plenty of sugar:
the one I liked best,
I’d give her the sugar at once.
And if then she kissed me tenderly,
she would be my wife and I her husband.
She’d fall asleep at my side,
and I’d rock her like a child.

I love the frolicsomeness and catchiness of the tune, but it is, of course, critical to observe that it’s tempered by Papageno’s loneliness. The aria serves as the perfect introduction of the character: he’s hapless and dopey, and he loves birds, but the simple-minded longing for a Mädchen that we glimpse here drives his devotion to Tamino later in the show.

And how can anyone resist the delicious adorableness of the choices the designer, John F. Macfarlane, made here? The innocent little groundbird (which is a character in its own right) with its head-cocking and pecking, Papageno’s flopping around, the corn, the sweater, and the hat! Oh how I want that hat. And notice how at the end, after all the goofiness, Papageno actually catches the bird: that’s a perfect little touch, since Papageno, for all his humorous-sidekick value, isn’t actually incompetent, as becomes important later on.

This is a 2003 recording of a performance of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden directed by David McVicar. Diana Damrau’s second “Queen of the Night” aria is astounding, too, and is what first got me interested in the show.

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* The English libretto oddly leaves out the third stanza, so the one reproduced here is retrieved from Robert Glaubitz’s The Aria Database (http://www.aria-database.com/translations/magic_flute.txt)

Tags: Music Post-off