() (K. 384; The Abduction from the Seraglio; also known as ) is a singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's . The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Constanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim. The work premiered on 16 July 1782 at the Vienna Burgtheater, with the composer conducting.
Origins The opera loosely refers to the practice of the North African Barbary corsairs, who operated primarily in the western Mediterranean, of hijacking ships belonging to Christian states. Under the pretext of jihad, the ship and cargo were sold or returned only after a ransom was paid. The actual goal, however, was the kidnapping of crew and passengers, to extort ransom money or to sell them into slavery. It was also common to force affected seafaring nations of non-Muslim faith to pay protection money or tribute. The corsairs acted on behalf of or with the acquiescence of the local Muslim rulers in Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. This type of state-backed piracy finally ended after the French conquest of Algiers (1830).Robert Ignatius Letellier (ed.): The Diaries of Giacomo Meyerbeer. Vol. 1: 1791–1839, Associated University Presses, Cranberry, London, Mississsauga 1999, , p. 375Hsu-Ming Teo: Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels, University of Texas Press, Austin 2012, , p. 46
The company that first sponsored the opera was the ("national Singspiel"), a pet project (1778–1783) of the Austrian emperor Joseph II. The Emperor had set up the company to perform works in the German language (as opposed to the Italian opera style widely popular in Vienna). This project was ultimately given up as a failure, but along the way it produced a number of successes, mostly a series of translated works. Mozart's opera emerged as its outstanding original success.
The inspector of the was Gottlieb Stephanie. When the 25-year-old Mozart arrived in Vienna in 1781, seeking professional opportunity, one of the first tasks to which he addressed himself was to become acquainted with Stephanie and lobby him for an opera commission. To this end, he brought a copy of his earlier unfinished opera Zaide and showed it to Stephanie, who was duly impressed. Mozart also made a strong impression on the manager of the theater, Count Franz Xaver Orsini-Rosenberg, when in the home of Mozart's friend and patroness Maria Wilhelmine Thun the Count heard him play excerpts from his opera Idomeneo, premiered with great success the previous year in Munich. With this backing, it was agreed that Stephanie would find appropriate material and prepare a libretto for Mozart. Stephanie complied by preparing an altered version of an earlier work without attributing or seeking permission from its original author Christoph Friedrich Bretzner. Bretzner later complained loudly and publicly about the theft.
Composition Mozart received the libretto from Stephanie on 29 July 1781. He had few opportunities to compose professionally during the summer and he set to work on the libretto at a very rapid pace, finishing three major numbers in just two days. A letter to his father Leopold indicates he was excited about the prospect of having his opera performed in Vienna and worked enthusiastically on his project. No. 615. Collected edition, Internazionalen Stiftung Mozarteum, Salzburg.
At first Mozart thought he needed to finish his opera in only two months, because tentative plans were made to perform it at the September visit of the Russian Grand Duke Paul (son of Catherine the Great and heir to the Russian throne). However, it was ultimately decided to perform operas by Gluck instead, giving Mozart more time.
It was around this time that Mozart articulated his views about the role of the composer and the librettist in the preparation of an opera. He wrote to his father (13 October 1781):
It would seem that something along these lines did happen – that is, Mozart decided to play a major role in the shaping of the libretto, insisting that Stephanie make changes for dramatic and musical effect. On 26 September Mozart wrote:
Mozart was evidently quite pleased to have in Stephanie a librettist who would listen to him. The same letter also says:
With the delays for rewriting, the composition took several more months. The premiere took place on 16 July 1782, at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Character is in the genre of "Singspiel", thus the music lacks recitatives and consists entirely of set numbers. As Spike Hughes notes, the action is mostly carried forward by the spoken dialogue, so the libretto gave Mozart little opportunity to display an achievement for which his later operas are celebrated, namely the construction of scenes in which the plot is both reflected in and driven forward by the music.
is lighthearted and frequently comic, with little of the deep character exploration or darker feelings found in Mozart's later operas.See, for example, . The opera was inspired by a contemporary interest in the exotic culture of the Ottoman Empire, a nation which had only recently ceased to be a military threat to Austria., suggests that "preparations had just begun to celebrate" the centennial of lifting of the Turkish Siege of Vienna in 1683. Later in the decade, Austria was again at war with Turkey (see Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)) but this was a war of aggression, not defense.Two contemporary works also showing the contemporary interest in matters Turkish were Giovanni Paolo Marana's Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy and Montesquieu's Persian Letters. Mozart's opera includes a Westernized version of Turkish music, based very loosely on the Turkish Janissary band music."Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail K. 384 " by Georg Predota, interlude.hk, 16 July 2018
Certain aspects of the opera conform to an eighteenth-century European view of orientalism. The Pasha's titular harem, for example, reprised themes of sexual libertinage. And the comically sinister overseer, Osmin, is a send-up of earlier stereotypes of Turkish despotism. notes: "" [Next to the older image of the demonised enemy stood the over-the-top Turkish Buffoon in cultural representation, such as the Harem overseer Osmin from Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio.] p. 34 However, the opera also defies the stereotype of despotic Turkish culture, since its climax entails a selfless act of forgiveness on the part of the Pasha.Others have suggested that the Pasha is portrayed positively for acting like a Christian. This argument is made in and possibly implied by Mary Hunter who says that he is "represented as European by his act of mercy", in .
The music includes some of the composer's most spectacular and difficult arias. Osmin's act 3 aria "" includes characteristic 18th century coloratura passage work, and twice goes down to a low D (D2), one of the lowest notes demanded of any voice in opera. Perhaps the most famous aria in the opera is the long and elaborate "" ("Tortures of all kinds") for Konstanze, an outstanding challenge for sopranos. Konstanze sings in a kind of sinfonia concertante with four solo players from the orchestra; the strikingly long orchestral introduction, without stage action, also poses problems for stage directors.For discussion, see .
The virtuosity of these roles is perhaps attributable to the fact that when he took up the task of composing the opera, Mozart already knew the outstanding reputations of the singers for whom he was writing, and he tailored the arias to their strengths. The first Osmin was Ludwig Fischer, a bass noted for his wide range and skill in leaping over large intervals with ease. Similarly, Mozart wrote of the first Konstanze, Caterina Cavalieri, "I have sacrificed Konstanze's aria a little to the flexible throat of Mlle. Cavalieri."
Reception The opera was a huge success. The first two performances brought in the large sum of 1200 florins. The work was repeatedly performed in Vienna during Mozart's lifetime,For a listing see . and throughout German-speaking Europe.See the index entry for the opera in . The Stuttgart premiere had to wait until 19 September 1795, because the singspiel , set to the same story by Christian Ludwig Dieter (1757–1822), first performed there in 1784, was so popular as to preclude any performances of Mozart's version; Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954, Eric Blom, ed. In 1787, Goethe wrote (concerning his own efforts as a librettist):
Although the opera greatly raised Mozart's standing with the public as a composer, it did not make him rich: he was paid a flat fee of 100 Imperial ducats (about 450 florins) for his work, and made no profits from the many subsequent performances.
The opera reached Paris in November 1801, when Frédéric Blasius conducted Ellmenreich's company in performances at the .Noiray, Michel. "Blasius [Blassius], (Matthieu-)Frédéric" in Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, 4 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1992), 1: 498
The American premiere in English was given by the Rochester Opera Company on 1 November 1926 under the direction of Vladimir Rosing."Mozart's Seraglio Given Its American Premiere", Times-Union (Rochester), 2 November 1926. A second production with a new English libretto by Robert A. Simon was debuted by the American Opera Company at the Gallo Opera House in New York on 31 January 1928,"Mozart's Abduction From the Seraglio by the American Opera Company", New York Herald Tribune, 3 February 1928. and was then performed on tour in Boston and Chicago."Final Opera of Americans Gayest of All", Chicago Tribune, 17 April 1928.
"Too many notes" The complexity of Mozart's work noted by Goethe also plays a role in a well-known tale about the opera which appeared in the early (1798) biography of Mozart by Franz Xaver Niemetschek. In the version of the anecdote printed in Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes, a reference work, the story is told like this:
The authenticity of this story is not accepted by all scholars.See , and references cited there. Moreover, the version given by the Bartlett reference (and many other places) includes a translation of the original German that is dubious. The original reads: "" "Too many notes" is not a plausible translation of the German phrase "". Mautner, translating Niemetschek, renders this as "an extraordinary number of notes", while Branscombe translates it simply as "very many notes". William Stafford translates the phrase as "Too beautiful for our ears, and an enormous number of notes, dear Mozart!" The anecdote, which is often repeated, is considered by some scholars to unfairly give the Emperor a bad reputation concerning both his musical abilities and his appreciation and support of Mozart.
Roles
+RoleVoice typePremiere cast, 16 July 1782Conductor: W. A. MozartBelmonte, a Spanish noblemantenorValentin AdambergerKonstanze, betrothed to BelmontesopranoCaterina CavalieriBlonde,Blonde's beloved Pedrillo addresses her as "," the German diminutive form of her name. Blonde is also occasionally called Blondchen in program notes and similar contexts. See . Konstanze's English maidsopranoTherese TeyberPedrillo, Belmonte's servanttenorJohann Ernst DauerOsmin, overseer for the PashabassLudwig FischerBassa Selim, the Pashaspoken roleDominik JautzKlaas, boatmanspoken roleunknownChorus of Janissaries
Instrumentation
The singers perform with a Classical-era orchestra: pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, a set of two timpani, and strings. They are augmented with the instruments needed for "Turkish" music: a 'tamburo grande' (or 'tamburo turco'), cymbals, triangles, and piccolo. The aria "" is augmented by two basset horns.