Preview Mozart: The Abduction From The Seraglio
Culture clash as Western women disrupt the peaceful routine of a Turkish harem
Preview: Mozart: The Abduction From The Seraglio
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The Seraglio was the 25-year-old Mozart’s first major work for the theatre after he left provincial Salzburg to settle, finally a free agent, in Vienna. Further, it was to turn out to be the composer’s most exportable opera during his lifetime. Modern research entertains the idea that it might well have been Emperor Joseph II himself who suggested a Turkish slant for Mozart’s new piece. There was a state visit by Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia pending, with the promise of high-level secret negotiations to carve-up the ailing Ottoman Empire.
The storyline also suited Mozart’s immediate agenda, since it meant he now had both a Konstanze and a Constanze in his life. The first was the opera’s heroine, a model of virtue and nobility, in need of rescue, along with her maid, from the perils of the Turkish harem by the hero, Belmonte. The second was a vivacious, attractive 19 year-old - his future wife - the daughter of his landlady, with whom he was flirting. Rumours of a somewhat deeper involvement with Constanze even reached Leopold Mozart in Salzburg, no doubt fuelled by Wolfgang’s unfortunate slip of the pen, The Seduction From The Seraglio, an error which has amused his biographers ever since. In the end, he did manage to liberate Constanze from the tyranny of her mother.
Konstanze is in love, and love means life to her. She has three wonderful arias: the first lays out her love for Belmonte, the second is a lament telling of the dangers of her imprisonment, the third, one of the few Mozart pieces that Callas was happy to sing, is a dramatic scene which finds her hoping for death to relieve the mental cruelty of separation. Bemonte fares even better: four great arias, of which the most beautiful opens with “Oh, how fearful, oh, how fiery, is my heart that beats with love”, with a beating heart full of love indicated by the accompanying two violins in octaves. Osmin, the almost comic villain, the overseer of the Pasha’s palace - once more the baritone preventing the union of the tenor and soprano - has the famous ‘furious aria’, a real vocal tour-de-force. The political hero is the Pasha himself, a non-singing part, who, when the rescue fails, grants Konstanze her freedom, a gesture guaranteed to impress the Emperor Joseph, who was considered something of a benign beacon in that Age of the Enlightenment.
Tim Hopkins’ and Nicholas Ridout’s new production for Opera North uses Amanda Holden’s existing English lyrics.
20 & 22 May 23, 25 & 27 June, Grand Theatre, 46 New Briggate, LS1 6NZ, 0113 222 6222, £10-£58, 7.15pm
Posted on Wednesday 29th April 2009
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