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.
English translation
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!
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.
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.