A number from the Magic Flute which is unknown? Impossible! But there is a duet for Tamino and Papageno which was not part of the well-known sequence. It is now available again.

In the Supplement volumes of the New Mozart Edition various compositions which have been transmitted under the name of Mozart are included for discussion as “Works with Doubtful Authenticity”. This category is limited to compositions where the authorship still cannot be conclusively determined even now on the basis of critical evaluation or stylistic analysis of the sources. These works include a duet for Tamino and Papageno, “Pamina, wo bist Du?”, which is found in a unique source, a copy of a score dating from the early 19th century now preserved in the Lippische Landesbibliothek Detmold.

Tamino: Pamina, wo bist du?
Papageno: Ach Weibchen, wo bist du?
Tamino/Papageno: Getrennt von dir zu sein,
ist mir die größte Pein.
Tamino: Schaff meinem Herzen Ruh!
Tamino: Nur sehen will ich dich und fragen: “Liebst du mich?” Dann tret ich kühn die Bahn zum neuen Leben an. Nun zur Pamina …
Papageno: … und Papagena!
Tamino/Papageno: Stille, stille, stille, still!

Richard Genée introduced the duet for the first time in 1898 in an article entitled “Ein bisher unbekannt gebliebenes Duett zu Mozarts ‘Zauberflöte’ ” in the Mittheilungen für die Mozart-Gemeinde in Berlin; it was then published in early 20th century vocal scores of Die Zauberflöte by C. F. Peters, but was no longer included in the vocal score of the work by Kurt Soldan (1932) which remains well-known to the present day. The duet has not been included in the full score until now; it occasionally appears on recordings.

The duet is in B flat major and is in two sections: a dialogue Andante of 44 bars is followed by an Allegro of 68 bars, which is allocated to Tamino alone over long stretches before Papageno joins in again in the last bars. The scoring with 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and strings is found elsewhere in Die Zauberflöte.

The vocal writing in the duet is “Mozartian” over long stretches. This also applies to the varied and very dense orchestral accompaniment in the first section. But the stylistic evidence elsewhere in the piece is contradictory: Tamino’s “monologue” seems rather out of place in a duet, and the restrained orchestration of the ending lacks Mozartian moments of surprise which, by contrast, are found at the beginning of the second section in some unusual harmonic turns.

The duet survives without any linking prose text, and in the Detmold score is bound in at the beginning of the 2nd Act in the 11th Scene as No. 13 between the duet for the two priests and the quintet “Wie? wie? wie? […]”. In view of the two priests’ exhortation to be on guard against women’s wiles, the longing for Pamina and Papagena seems inappropriate. The use of two duets for tenor and bass in direct succession, even though they are for different characters, would be unusual, and the insertion of a piece in B flat major between the C major duet and the quintet in G major is not convincing in the sequence of keys.

The duet “Pamina, wo bist du?” is a musically interesting piece which, although it emerged early on in the transmission of the opera, has remained largely unnoticed. From our knowledge of Mozart’s methods of working and his personal style, because the piece does not survive in any other sources it is unlikely that all parts of it are by Mozart. But the thematic invention and the orchestration of the first section are not necessarily the work of an imitative 19th century composer.  The duet was perhaps not simply cut as surplus, but may have been replaced during the draft stage by the duet of the two priests before the opera was completed.

Ulrich Leisinger
(from [t]akte 1/2018)
(translation: Elizabeth Robinson)