Papageno-Papagena duet [German and English subtitles] Mozart's Magic Flute
Channel: Anna Xu
Date: 2018-05-24

A few years ago, I saw an English version of Mozart's the Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), and the Papageno-Papagena duet was my favorite song. Papageno is a bird-catcher, and he has to pass a test to deserve a girlfriend, the girl-version of himself, Papagena. The test was to declare his love for an ugly old hag. Papageno says he'll only love her until someone better comes along. The ugly old hag takes off her disguise -- it's young and attractive Papagena, only wearing a wig and baggy clothing! He has just failed the test, and therefore, he gets no girlfriend. Papageno is grief-stricken, and decides to commit suicide. However, the gods grant him mercy, and let him be Papagena's boyfriend anyway. It's an aria about a man who is unworthy of love, yet finds it anyway.

To be honest, I didn't like most of the opera. The main plot is that there is girl who is kidnapped by a sun cult, and her mom is frantically trying to save her. The mom enlists a handsome prince to help save her, but the useless bum ends up joining the sun cult too -_-

Original video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZo0klTdVGg