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"Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" (This image is enchantingly lovely) is an aria from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1791 opera The Magic Flute. The aria takes place in act 1, scene 1, of the opera. Prince Tamino has just been presented by the Three Ladies with an image of the princess Pamina, and falls instantly in love with her.

Lyrics

The libretto to the opera was written by Emanuel Schikaneder. Peter Branscombe described the lyrics "a very tolerable sonnet."^[1]

Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön,
wie noch kein Auge je gesehn.
Ich fühl' es, wie dies Götterbild
mein Herz mit neuer Regung füllt.

Dies Etwas kann ich zwar nicht nennen,
doch fühl' ich's hier wie Feuer brennen;
soll die Empfindung Liebe sein?
Ja, die Liebe ist's allein.

O wenn ich sie nur finden könnte!
O wenn sie doch schon vor mir stünde!
ich würde warm und rein –

was würde ich? Ich würde sie voll Entzücken
an diesen heißen Busen drücken,
und ewig wäre sie dann mein.

This image is enchantingly lovely,
Like no eye has ever beheld!
I feel it as this divine picture,
Fills my heart with new emotion.

I cannot name my feeling,
Though I feel it burn like fire within me,
Could this feeling be love?
Yes! Yes! It is love alone!

Oh, if only I could find her,
If only she were standing before me,
I would, I would, with warmth and honor ...

What would I do? Full of rapture,
I would press her to this glowing bosom,
And then she would be mine forever!

The meter is iambic tetrameter,^[2] which is the metre Schikaneder used throughout most of The Magic Flute. The stanzaic form and rhyme scheme involves two quatrains followed by two rhymed tercets, thus: [AABB] [CCDD] [EEF] [GGF].

Music

Mozart composed the aria in E-flat major. It is scored for two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, the usual string section, and the tenor soloist.

Mozart's musical setting mostly follows the scheme of Schikaneder's poem. There is an opening section in E-flat corresponding to the first quatrain, a modulation to the dominant key of B-flat for the second quatrain, a chromatic and modulating passage for the first tercet, and a return to E-flat for the last.

The third to last line "Was würde ich? Ich würde sie voll Entzücken" is not strictly a iambic tetrameter, and may reflect a change of the text by Mozart, who places a dramatic full-measure pause after Tamino's self-directed question.

The orchestra for the most part plays a discreet accompaniment to the soloist. There is a solo for the clarinets between the first and second quatrains, and the first violins play a thirty-second note motif, evoking Tamino's surging emotions, in the third section.

Premiere and reception

The aria was first sung by Benedikt Schack (1758–1826), a friend of Mozart's,^[3] who performed the role of Tamino at the premiere of The Magic Flute.^[4] It is frequently performed and recorded today, both as part of The Magic Flute and separately in recitals and recorded compilations.

Criticism and commentary

Hermann Abert offered background to the work thus: it "deals with a theme familiar not only from fairytales but also from French and German comic operas, namely the love of a mere portrait, a true fairytale miracle that music alone can turn into a real-life experience."^[5] Abert goes on to contrast Tamino's love with that of other male characters in Mozart opera:

Few, if any, experiences lend themselves to musical treatment as much as the mysterious burgeoning of love in a young heart. It was an experience that already preoccupied Mozart's attentions in the case of Cherubino. Now, of course, we are no longer dealing with an adolescent but with an already mature young man. Moreover, Tamino does not experience love as a state of turmoil in which all his senses are assaulted, as is the case with Count Almaviva, for example, but nor is it a magic force that paralyses all his energies, as it does with Don Ottavio. Rather, it is with reverent awe that he feels the unknown yet divine miracle burgeoning within him. From the outset, this lends his emotions a high degree of moral purity and prevents him from becoming sentimental.^[5]

Grout and Williams suggest that the opening notes of the aria spill over into other numbers: "The opening phrase of 'Dies Bildnis ist bezauberned schön' turns up at a half-dozen unexpected places in the second finale.^[6] These and similar melodic remembrances are not to be regarded as leitmotifs in the Wagnerian sense but as partly unconscious echoes of musical ideas that were in Mozart's mind throughout the composition of the opera."^[7]

Notes

^ Branscombe (1991, 50). In terms of length and stanza structure Branscombe is correct, but a rhyme scheme of paired couplets is unusual for a sonnet; see Sonnet for discussion.
^ Branscombe (1991, 50)
^ See the online New Grove, article "Benedikt Schack" (subscription required)
^ Branscombe (1991)
^ ^a ^b Abert, p. 1265
^ They do not specify these locations but one fairly clear case is the phrase to which Pamina sings the words "Tamino mein! O welch ein Glück!" ("My Tamino! Oh what happiness!") when they are reunited shortly before their trials of fire and water. See also Tamino's part on "Wir wandeln durch des Tones Macht" ("We wander by the power of the sound") and the third and fourth bars of the flute solo he plays during the trials.
^ Grout and Williams (2003:331)

References

Abert, Hermann (2007) (original edition 1920) W. A. Mozart. Translated by Stewart Spencer and edited/footnoted by Cliff Eisen. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Branscombe, Peter (1991) W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte. (Cambridge Opera Handbooks). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grout, Donald Jay and Hermine Weigel Williams (2003) A Short History of Opera, 4th ed. New York: Columbia University Press.

External links

Text, with a different English translation
Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön: Score in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe

[1] Branscombe (1991, 50). In terms of length and stanza structure Branscombe is correct, but a rhyme scheme of paired couplets is unusual for a sonnet; see Sonnet for discussion.

[2] Branscombe (1991, 50)

[3] See the online New Grove, article "Benedikt Schack" (subscription required)

[4] Branscombe (1991)

[Abert1265-5] Abert, p. 1265

[6] They do not specify these locations but one fairly clear case is the phrase to which Pamina sings the words "Tamino mein! O welch ein Glück!" ("My Tamino! Oh what happiness!") when they are reunited shortly before their trials of fire and water. See also Tamino's part on "Wir wandeln durch des Tones Macht" ("We wander by the power of the sound") and the third and fourth bars of the flute solo he plays during the trials.

[7] Grout and Williams (2003:331)

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''''Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön''''' ("This image is enchantingly lovely") is an [[aria]] from the 1791 opera ''[[Die Zauberflöte]] (The Magic Flute)'' by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]], to a libretto by [[Emanuel Schikaneder]]. The aria comes from Act I, scene I of the opera. Prince Tamino has just been presented by the Three Ladies with an image of the princess Pamina, and falls instantly in love with her.
+"'''{{Lang|de|Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön}}'''" (This image is enchantingly lovely) is an [[aria]] from [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]'s 1791 opera ''[[The Magic Flute]]''. The aria takes place in act 1, scene 1, of the opera. Prince Tamino has just been presented by the Three Ladies with an image of the princess Pamina, and falls instantly in love with her.
 ==Lyrics==
+The [[libretto]] to the opera was written by [[Emanuel Schikaneder]]. [[Peter Branscombe]] described the lyrics "a very tolerable [[sonnet]]."<ref>Branscombe (1991, 50). In terms of length and stanza structure Branscombe is correct, but a rhyme scheme of paired couplets is unusual for a sonnet; see [[Sonnet]] for discussion.</ref>
+{|
-[[Peter Branscombe]] described the lyrics "a very tolerable [[sonnet]]."<ref>Branscombe (1991, 50). In terms of length and stanza structure Branscombe is correct, but a rhyme scheme of paired couplets is unusual for a sonnet; see [[Sonnet]] for discussion.</ref> Laid out as verse, it appears as follows:
+| style="padding-right: 3em;" |<poem>{{Lang|de|Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön,
+wie noch kein Auge je gesehn.
+Ich fühl' es, wie dies Götterbild
+mein Herz mit neuer Regung füllt.
+Dies Etwas kann ich zwar nicht nennen,
-{|
+doch fühl' ich's hier wie Feuer brennen;
-! <div style='text-align: left; direction: ltr; margin-left: 0em;'>
+soll die Empfindung Liebe sein?
-German original</div>
+Ja, die Liebe ist's allein.
-! <div style='text-align: left; direction: ltr; margin-left: 3em;'>
-English translation</div>
-|-
-|  style="padding-right: 3em;" |
-Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön, <br>
-wie noch kein Auge je gesehn.<br>
-Ich fühl’ es, wie dies Götterbild<br>
-mein Herz mit neuer Regung füllt.<br>
-Dies Etwas kann ich zwar nicht nennen,<br>
-doch fühl’ ich’s hier wie Feuer brennen;<br>
-soll die Empfindung Liebe sein? –	<br>
-Ja, ja, die Liebe ist’s allein.<br>
-O wenn ich sie nur finden könnte!<br>
-O wenn sie doch schon vor mir stünde!<br>
-ich würde – würde – – warm und rein –<br>
-was würde ich? – Ich würde sie voll Entzücken <br>
-an diesen heißen Busen drücken,<br>
-und ewig wäre sie dann mein.
+O wenn ich sie nur finden könnte!
-|  style="padding-left: 3em;" |
+O wenn sie doch schon vor mir stünde!
+ich würde warm und rein –
+was würde ich? Ich würde sie voll Entzücken
-This image is enchantingly lovely,<br>
+an diesen heißen Busen drücken,
-Like no eye has ever beheld!<br>
+und ewig wäre sie dann mein.}}</poem>
-I feel it as this divine picture,<br>
+|<poem>This image is enchantingly lovely,
-Fills my heart with new emotion.<br>
+Like no eye has ever beheld!
-I cannot name my feeling,<br>
-Though I feel it burn like fire within me,<br>
+I feel it as this divine picture,
+Fills my heart with new emotion.
-Could this feeling be love?<br>
-Yes! Yes! It is love alone!<br>
-Oh, if only I could find her,<br>
-If only she were standing before me,<br>
-I would, I would, with warmth and honor ...<br>
-What would I do? Full of rapture,<br>
-I would press her to this glowing bosom,<br>
-And then she would be mine forever!<br>
-|}
-The meter is [[iambic tetrameter]],<ref>Branscombe (1991, 50)</ref> which is the meter Schikaneder used throughout most of ''The Magic Flute''.  The stanzaic form and rhyme scheme involves two quatrains followed by two rhymed tercets, thus:
+I cannot name my feeling,
-<blockquote>
+Though I feel it burn like fire within me,
-[AABB][CCDD][EEF][GGF]
+Could this feeling be love?
-</blockquote>
+Yes! Yes! It is love alone!
+Oh, if only I could find her,
+If only she were standing before me,
+I would, I would, with warmth and honor ...
+What would I do? Full of rapture,
+I would press her to this glowing bosom,
+And then she would be mine forever!</poem>
+|}
+The meter is [[iambic tetrameter]],<ref>Branscombe (1991, 50)</ref> which is the [[Metre (poetry)|metre]] Schikaneder used throughout most of ''The Magic Flute''. The [[stanza]]ic form and [[rhyme scheme]] involves two [[quatrain]]s followed by two rhymed [[tercet]]s, thus: [AABB] [CCDD] [EEF] [GGF].
 ==Music==
-Mozart composed the aria in [[E-flat major]].  It is scored for two [[clarinet]]s, two [[bassoon]]s, two [[Horn (instrument)|horns]], the usual [[string section]], and the tenor soloist.
+Mozart composed the aria in [[E-flat major]]. It is scored for two [[clarinet]]s, two [[bassoon]]s, two [[Horn (instrument)|horns]], the usual [[string section]], and the tenor soloist.
-Mozart's musical setting mostly follows the scheme of Schikaneder's poem. There is an opening section in E flat corresponding to the first quatrain, a modulation to the dominant key of B flat for the second quatrain, a chromatic and modulating passage for the first triplet, and a return to E flat for the last.
+Mozart's musical setting mostly follows the scheme of Schikaneder's poem. There is an opening section in E-flat corresponding to the first quatrain, a [[Modulation (music)|modulation]] to the [[Dominant (music)|dominant key]] of [[B-flat major|B-flat]] for the second quatrain, a [[Chromaticism|chromatic]] and modulating passage for the first tercet, and a return to E-flat for the last.
-The third to last line "Was würde ich?  Ich würde sie voll Entzücken" is not a legal iambic tetrameter, and may reflect a change of the text by Mozart, who places a dramatic full-measure pause after Tamino's self-directed question.
+The third to last line "Was würde ich? Ich würde sie voll Entzücken" is not strictly a iambic tetrameter, and may reflect a change of the text by Mozart, who places a dramatic full-measure [[Rest (music)|pause]] after Tamino's self-directed question.
-The orchestra for the most part plays a discreet accompaniment to the soloist.  There is a solo for the clarinets between the first and second quatrains, and the first violins play a thirty-second note motif, evoking Tamino's surging emotions, in the third section.
+The orchestra for the most part plays a discreet [[accompaniment]] to the soloist. There is a solo for the clarinets between the first and second quatrains, and the first violins play a [[thirty-second note]] [[Motif (music)|motif]], evoking Tamino's surging emotions, in the third section.
 ==Premiere and reception==
-The aria was first sung by [[Benedikt Schack]] (1758–1826), a friend of Mozart's,<ref>See the online [[New Grove]], article "Benedikt Schack" [http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=224164025&hitnum=1&section=music.24728]</ref> who performed the role of Tamino at the premiere of ''The Magic Flute''.<ref>Branscombe (1991)</ref>  It is frequently performed and recorded today, both as part of ''The Magic Flute'' and separately in recitals and recorded compilations.
+The aria was first sung by [[Benedikt Schack]] (1758–1826), a friend of Mozart's,<ref>See the online [[New Grove]], article [http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=224164025&hitnum=1&section=music.24728 "Benedikt Schack"] {{Subscription required}}</ref> who performed the role of Tamino at the premiere of ''The Magic Flute''.<ref>Branscombe (1991)</ref> It is frequently performed and recorded today, both as part of ''The Magic Flute'' and separately in recitals and recorded compilations.
 ==Criticism and commentary==
-[[Hermann Abert]] offered background to the work thus:  it "deals with a theme familiar not only from fairytales but also from French and German comic operas, namely the love of a mere portrait, a true fairytale miracle that music alone can turn into a real-life experience."<ref>Abert, p. 1265</ref> Abert goes on to contrast Tamino's love with that of other male characters in Mozart opera:
+[[Hermann Abert]] offered background to the work thus: it "deals with a theme familiar not only from fairytales but also from French and German comic operas, namely the love of a mere portrait, a true fairytale miracle that music alone can turn into a real-life experience."<ref name=Abert1265>Abert, p. 1265</ref> Abert goes on to contrast Tamino's love with that of other male characters in Mozart opera:
+<blockquote>Few, if any, experiences lend themselves to musical treatment as much as the mysterious burgeoning of love in a young heart. It was an experience that already preoccupied Mozart's attentions in the case of [[The Marriage of Figaro|Cherubino]]. Now, of course, we are no longer dealing with an adolescent but with an already mature young man. Moreover, Tamino does not experience love as a state of turmoil in which all his senses are assaulted, as is the case with [[The Marriage of Figaro|Count Almaviva]], for example, but nor is it a magic force that paralyses all his energies, as it does with [[Don Giovanni|Don Ottavio]]. Rather, it is with reverent awe that he feels the unknown yet divine miracle burgeoning within him. From the outset, this lends his emotions a high degree of moral purity and prevents him from becoming sentimental.<ref name=Abert1265 /></blockquote>
+[[Donald Jay Grout|Grout]] and Williams suggest that the opening notes of the aria spill over into other numbers:  "The opening phrase of 'Dies Bildnis ist bezauberned schön' turns up at a half-dozen unexpected places in the second finale.<ref>They do not specify these locations but one fairly clear case is the phrase to which Pamina sings the words "Tamino mein! O welch ein Glück!" ("My Tamino! Oh what happiness!") when they are reunited shortly before their trials of fire and water. See also Tamino's part on "Wir wandeln durch des Tones Macht" ("We wander by the power of the sound") and the third and fourth bars of the flute solo he plays during the trials.</ref> These and similar melodic remembrances are not to be regarded as [[leitmotifs]] in the [[Wagner]]ian sense but as partly unconscious echoes of musical ideas that were in Mozart's mind throughout the composition of the opera."<ref>Grout and Williams (2003:331)</ref>
-:"Few, if any, experiences lend themselves to musical treatment as much as the mysterious burgeoning of love in a young heart. It was an experience that already preoccupied Mozart's attentions in the case of [[The Marriage of Figaro|Cherubino]]. Now, of course, we are no longer dealing with an adolescent but with an already mature young man. Moreover, Tamino does not experience love as a state of turmoil in which all his senses are assaulted, as is the case with [[The Marriage of Figaro|Count Almaviva]], for example, but nor is it a magic force that paralyses all his energies, as it does with [[Don Giovanni|Don Ottavio]]. Rather, it is with reverent awe that he feels the unknown yet divine miracle burgeoning within him. From the outset, this lends his emotions a high degree of moral purity and prevents him from becoming sentimental."<ref>Abert, p. 1265</ref>
-Grout and Williams suggest that the opening notes of the aria spill over into other numbers:  "The opening phrase of 'Dies Bildnis ist bezauberned schön' turns up at a half-dozen unexpected places in the second finale.<ref>They do not specify these locations but one fairly clear case is the phrase to which Pamina sings the words "Tamino mein! O welch ein Glück!" ("My Tamino! Oh what happiness!") when they are reunited shortly before their trials of fire and water. See also Tamino's part on "Wir wandeln durch des Tones Macht" ("We wander by the power of the sound") and the third and fourth bars of the flute solo he plays during the trials.</ref> These and similar melodic remembrances are not to be regarded as [[leitmotifs]] in the [[Wagner]]ian sense but as partly unconscious echoes of musical ideas that were in Mozart's mind throughout the composition of the opera."<ref>Grout and Williams (2003:331)</ref>
 ==Notes==
@@ Line 77: / Line 68: @@
 ==References==
-*Abert, Hermann (2007) (original edition 1920) ''W.A. Mozart''. Translated by Stewart Spencer and edited/footnoted by Cliff Eisen.  New Haven:  Yale University Press.
+*[[Hermann Abert|Abert, Hermann]] (2007) (original edition 1920) ''W. A. Mozart''. Translated by Stewart Spencer and edited/footnoted by [[Cliff Eisen]]. New Haven: Yale University Press.
-*Branscombe, Peter (1991) ''W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte''. (Cambridge Opera Handbooks).  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.
+*[[Peter Branscombe|Branscombe, Peter]] (1991) ''W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte''. (Cambridge Opera Handbooks).  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.
-*Grout, Donald Jay and Hermine Weigel Williams (2003) ''A Short History of Opera'', 4th ed.  New York: Columbia University Press.
+*[[Donald Jay Grout|Grout, Donald Jay]] and Hermine Weigel Williams (2003) ''A Short History of Opera'', 4th ed. New York: Columbia University Press.
 ==External links==
 * [http://www.aria-database.com/translations/mflute03_bildnis.txt Text, with a different English translation]
 * {{NMA|73|75}}
-* [http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/magflute/ Score] from the Magic Flute Project
+{{Portal bar|Opera}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schon}}