Roles and Instrumentation
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast, 30 September 1791 (conductor: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) |
|---|---|---|
| Tamino | tenor | Benedikt Schack |
| Papageno | baritone | Emanuel Schikaneder |
| Pamina | soprano | Anna Gottlieb |
| The Queen of the Night | coloratura soprano | Josepha Hofer |
| Sarastro | bass | Franz Xaver Gerl |
| Three ladies | 2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano | Mlle Klöpfer, Mlle Hofmann, Mme Elisabeth Schack |
| Monostatos | tenor | Johann Joseph Nouseul |
| Three boys | treble, alto, mezzo-soprano | Anna Schikaneder; Anselm Handelgruber; Franz Anton Maurer |
| Speaker of the temple | bass-baritone | Herr Winter |
| Three priests | tenor, 2 basses | Johann Michael Kistler, Urban Schikaneder, Herr Moll |
| Papagena | soprano | Barbara Gerl |
| Two armoured men | tenor, bass | Johann Michael Kistler, Herr Moll |
| Three slaves | 2 tenors, bass | Karl Ludwig Giesecke, Herr Frasel, Herr Starke |
| Priests, women, people, slaves, chorus | ||
The names of the performers at the premiere are taken from a preserved playbill for this performance (at right), which does not give full names; "Hr." = Herr, Mr.; "Mme." = Madame, Mrs.; "Mlle." = Mademoiselle, Miss.
While the female roles in the opera are assigned to different voice types, the playbill for the premiere performance referred to all of the female singers as "sopranos". The casting of the roles relies on the actual pitch range of the part.
These singers perform with an orchestra consisting of two flutes (one doubling on piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets (doubling basset horns), two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones (alto, tenor, and bass), timpani and strings. The work also requires a four-part chorus for several numbers (notably the finales of each act). Mozart also called for a stromento d'acciaio (instrument of steel) to perform Papageno's magic bells; an instrument which has since been lost to history, though modern day scholars believe it to be a keyed glockenspiel, which is usually substituted with a celesta instead in modern day performances.
Read more about this topic: Sarastro
Famous quotes containing the words roles and and/or roles:
“It was always the work that was the gyroscope in my life. I don’t know who could have lived with me. As an architect you’re absolutely devoured. A woman’s cast in a lot of roles and a man isn’t. I couldn’t be an architect and be a wife and mother.”
—Eleanore Kendall Pettersen (b. 1916)
“There is a striking dichotomy between the behavior of many women in their lives at work and in their lives as mothers. Many of the same women who are battling stereotypes on the job, who are up against unspoken assumptions about the roles of men and women, seem to accept—and in their acceptance seem to reinforce—these roles at home with both their sons and their daughters.”
—Ellen Lewis (20th century)