Tuesday 16 August 2011
Tune of the Day: In diesen heil'gen Hallen
from Mozart's “The Magic Flute”, arranged for two flutes
This bass aria is taken from Act II of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. After Pamina pleads with Sarastro to have mercy on her scheming mother (the Queen of the Night, who has just sung the famous aria “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen”, or “Hell's vengeance boileth in mine heart”), Sarastro forgives her and sings of the ideals of his Brotherhood:
Within these hallowed halls
One knows not revenge.
And should a person have fallen,
Love will guide him to duty.
Then wanders he on the hand of a friend
Cheerful and happy into a better land.