“Die Entführung aus dem Serail” is a parable on love, longing and loyalty and appeals at the same time for tolerance and humaneness. The Spanish nobleman Belmonte seeks to free his beloved Konstanze from her captivity in the harem of the Oriental Pasha Selim. In company with his servant Pedrillo, who loves Konstanze’s maid Blonde, he dares to enter the harem. A confrontation between East and West ensues which deeply moves all concerned.

The Singspiel (musical play) was first performed on 16 July 1782 in the Court Theatre of Vienna (translator’s note: this is not the “Burgtheater” familiar to us today). Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) composed it by order of Emperor Joseph II., who wished to establish a national style of music theatre as a pendant to the then Court Opera, which was of strongly Italian character. The work runs the gamut of all emotions from painful longing to wild fury to abandonments of joy, until in the finale all conclude,
To seek revenge is wholly hateful:
Far nobler is it to be kind;
And who forgives is sure to find
His fellow men for ever grateful.


 
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL

 

Musikalische Leitung Patrick Francis Chestnut
Inszenierung András Fricsay Kali Son
Bühne und Kostüme Johannes Leiacker
Chorleitung Christoph Kurig
 
Bassa Selim Peter Nikolaus Kante
Konstanze Cornelia Götz
Belmonte Christoph Strehl
Osmin Thorsten Grümbel
Blonde Sibylla Duffe
Pedrillo Cornel Frey
Chor Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein
Orchester Düsseldorfer Symphoniker