Mozart: Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail (C Major: 709204) [Blu-ray] [2012]

Mozart wrote this work at the age of 25 having just left the service of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg and at the start of his freelance career as a musician. The work's commission was to be for the Emperor's own National Singspiel company as opposed to a commission for an opera, an important distinction.

This performance of Mozart's Singspiel, most importantly therefore, includes the whole of the dialogue. It is only by doing this of course that the work is able to make proper dramatic sense. Too often the dialogue is heavily cut. Consequently, in those cases, the whole concept of a Singspiel with its emphasis on the spoken word, as opposed to opera where the emphasis is on the sung word, is lost. No such errors are made here and this production generates great dramatic impact.

Of course, simply restoring the dialogue and failing to act it would also fail. In this case the dialogue is delivered by all the members of the cast with completely gripping effect. No sense of simple declamation, rather a real drama of interacting and conflicting passions. Great use is made of silences to heighten the impact of the drama.

The `twist' of this production concerns the clear implications of the title. `Abduction' from the harem implies that the girls are taken from the harem perhaps without their full consent or at least with conflicting emotions. Without this dramatic option an alternative title may have suggested a simple escape or flight from the harem more obviously. In this production therefore, it becomes clear that the two girls have learnt to respect their Turkish captors at the very least. Consequently their intended `rescue' by their former lovers is not quite as uncomplicated as it may have been. Nevertheless, Mozart's final music and libretto underlines their deeper commitment to their former partners with the over-riding emphasis being upon the need for mercy and understanding.

Musically the production sparkles and is led with great energy and also sensitivity by the conductor, Ivor Bolton. The two soprano leads (Damrau and Peretyatko) are very well sung indeed and they deliver their parts with total conviction. They are helped in this regard by the support of an impressively sung and acted Osmin (Selig) who has a deeply resonating voice ideally suited to the part and the non-singing part played by Christopher Guest as the Pasha. The two erstwhile suitors (Strehl and Ernst) maintain the high standards of the whole cast. The chorus is energetically effective on its rare appearances and extends the staging area by singing from two of the overhanging boxes.

This is an outstanding production combining real sparkle and dramatic drive. The recording is of equally high standard and delivers particularly sharp imaging and excellent sound of great clarity in either stereo or DTS-HD MA 5.1. This should give great enjoyment and satisfaction to purchasers and I would suggest that it is therefore well-worth the full 5 star rating.

Why do they do it? It seems to be the fashion today for smart-ass directors to presume they know better than the composers, we have had a run of quite dreadful "modern productions" on Blu-ray recently that are just so disappointing and here comes another!

I know it is expensive to mount an opera but a table and a few chairs rented from the church hall, floppy suits el-cheapo from the souk, DJs and fake Turkish hats are not what I was hoping for. Only the ladies come out of this well, both are absolutely splendid. I have no problem at all with moving the story about a bit but transferring it to a barn with minimal sets and costumes looking as if it is all taking place on a grade B movie set is not what Mozart would have planned for.

As with the Amsterdam Blu-ray the dialogue is complete and it goes on and on - all a bit too long in my opinion. This is a comedy and much of the humour is in the dialogue but some judicious trimming here and there would have not gone amiss. There are many bits that drag and are not funny at all.

The singing is very fine, particularly the ladies and Osmin, but the acting under the misguided direction of Mr Loy did not grab me at all. My favourite is still the Mehta DVD with Rydl but the picture is poor and not all the cast are up to scratch. Anway back to this performance: It is a lost opportunity, another dreary DJ job and I cannot recommend it. At the moment the Amsterdam version is the best on Blu but there is still room for a decent traditional buffo version of this most marvellous of operas

There's an in-built difficulty in Mozart's earliest 'mature' comic opera that every modern opera stage director must consider a challenge - the long passages of unaccompanied spoken dialogue and recitative that are scattered throughout. Yes, the actual drama of Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail is a bit silly too and the libretto isn't the most sophisticated, but even if you manage to make the plot work dramatically (having good singers can help gloss over the inconsistencies which is certainly the case here), you're still left with those lulls between Mozart's beautiful musical passages that can potentially kill the opera dead in its tracks. This production by Christof Loy at the Liceu in Barcelona, aided and abetted by an outstanding cast and an exhilarating performance of the score from the Liceu orchestra under Ivor Bolton, crucially takes account of those weaknesses, and if the result is still not entirely convincing, it's nonetheless still one of the best versions of this Mozart opera that you're ever likely to come across.

Traditionally, the way of handling the spoken dialogue in Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail is to heavily trim it and get it out of the way as quickly as possible so as to move on to the music, but such an approach fails to adequately take into account the fact that the main dramatic drive of the opera actually lies in between the musical numbers and arias. In some respects, it could be argued that the spoken passages are equally as important as the arias, if not even more so in this particular case since Mozart's music for Die Entführung Aus Dem Serail is not the most lyrically attuned to the emotional content. Christof Loy attempts to address the vacuity of the arias and the dead-space of the dialogue by getting the singers to act properly. There is no declamation of the lines here as they would more commonly be expressed, but rather Loy directs the performers to deliver the lines naturalistically and makes use of their silences in the same way that he makes use of space on the stage to define the relationship between them.

Loy's direction isn't really geared towards appeasing traditionalists then - the sets are sparse (although not as sparse as the director usually decorates them) and the costumes don't reflect any specific period, although there is a nod towards a middle-eastern flavour in some of the attire - but it should at least be evident that this is a respectful production that is aimed towards making the best out of what is an imperfect opera, one that the director clearly thinks deserves to be considered more than just a lightweight entertainment. He doesn't always succeed, but it's an impressive attempt that is given additional merit from the terrific, lively account of the score under Ivor Bolton that works well in conjunction with the staging. The singing is of an exceptionally high standard right across the board, but the performance of Diana Damrau deserves to be singled out as it's not only one of the best Konstanze's you'll ever hear, but when placed in the context of this fine treatment of the opera, it's an incredible tour de force performance that highlights the extraordinary abilities of one of the best sopranos in the world today.

An exceptional production - one of the best I've ever seen - the Blu-ray is just as impressive. There are no extra features, but the HD image quality and the sound reproduction are amazing. Subtitles are in German, English, French, Spanish, Catalan, Chinese and Korean.