O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn
"O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" is the first aria performed by the Queen of the Night in Mozart's singspiel The Magic Flute . It is not as well known as the Queen's second aria, "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen", though no less demanding; the aria requires a soprano coloratura with extremely high tessitura and great vocal flexibility.
The arrival of the Queen of the Night. Stage set by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781–1841) for an 1815 production
The Magic Flute, K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form during the time it was written that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on 30 September 1791 at Schikaneder's theatre, the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, just two months before the composer's premature death. Still a staple of the opera repertory, its popularity was reflected by two immediate sequels, Peter Winter's Das Labyrinth oder Der Kampf mit den Elementen. Der Zauberflöte zweyter Theil (1798) and a fragmentary libretto by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe titled The Magic Flute Part Two.
The arrival of the Queen of the Night. Stage set by Karl Friedrich Schinkel for an 1815 production.
Emanuel Schikaneder, librettist of Die Zauberflöte, as Papageno
Baritone Markus Werba appearing as Papageno. He wears his pipes and carries his magic bells; both instruments are essential to the plot.
Libretto cover design by Peter Hoffer, 1959