Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Music by

W. A. Mozart

Wales Millennium Centre

Cardiff Bay, UK

2010

Saturday
February
13
19:15
Saturday
February
20
19:15
Tuesday
March
09
19:15
Tuesday
March
16
19:15
Tuesday
March
23
19:15
Thursday
April
01
19:15

Cast

Belmonte  Robin Tritschler
Belmonte  Andrew Kennedy
Osmin  Petros Magoulas
Konstanze  Lisette Oropesa
Pedrillo  Wynne Evans
Blonde  Claire Ormshaw

Conductor

Rinaldo Alessandrini

Anthony Negus

Director

James Robinson

Set Designer

Allen Moyer

Costumes

Allen Moyer

Costumes

Anna R. Oliver

Lighting

Paul Palazzo

About

Belmonte’s lover Constanze is being held captive by Pasha Selim. If Belmonte is going to rescue Constanze he will have to get past the Pasha’s steward Osmin first. This may not necessarily sound like the premise of a comedy but The Abduction from the Seraglio is one of Mozart’s wittiest and most delightful creations.

The joyous overture suggests a boisterous sense of fun, which is carried right through to the final curtain with stratospheric arias and blissful ensembles along the way. Rinaldo Alessandrini, known to WNO audiences for his interpretations of Monteverdi, returns to conduct this glorious comedy.
 
James Robinson’s stylish production is irresistibly entertaining, setting the opera on the Orient Express of the 1920s en route from Paris to Istanbul.

Reviews

The Abduction from the Seraglio, Millennium Centre, Cardiff The Gamblers, Royal Festival Hall, Londo

...while Oropesa's ardent, dewy soprano makes "Traurigkeit ward mir zum Lose" the high point of the work and delivers "Marten aller Arten" with ease while being showered with furs, silks, jewels and shoes (shoes!)...

—  Anna Picard  •  The Independant