Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön

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, 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.

Lyrics

German original

English translation

Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön Wie noch kein Auge je geseh'n! Ich fühl' es, wie dies Götterbild Mein Herz mit neuer Regung füllt. Dies' etwas kann ich zwar nicht nennen, Doch fühl' ichs hier wie Feuer brennen. Soll die Empfindung Liebe sein? Ja, ja, die Liebe ist's allein. O, wenn ich sie nur finden könnte! O, wenn sie doch schon vor mir stände! Ich würde, 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 fold her in this glowing bosom, And then she would be mine forever!

Schikaneder wrote the lyrics in fairly strict iambic tetrameter, the meter he used through 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 Schikaneder's 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.

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 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^[1] who performed the role of Tamino at the premiere of The Magic Flute.^[2] It is frequently performed and recorded today, both as part of The Magic Flute and separately in recitals and recorded compilations.

Notes

1. ^ See the online New Grove, article "Benedikt Schack" [1]
2. ^ Branscombe, Peter (1991) Die Zauberflöte, Cambridge Opera Handbooks series, Cambridge University Press.

External links

• Text
• Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön: Score in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
• Score from the Magic Flute Project