Opera Review: The Abduction From The Seraglio and Pretty Yende

From the terrace of the opera pavilion the view of the lake, deer park and rolling Chiltern hills is a glorious sight on a sunny day. A few minutes away by bus, the walled garden of the Wormsley estate is in full bloom. This year too, underfloor heating deals with the after-interval evening chill.

Mozart’s 1782 opera The Abduction From The Seraglio is freely adapted by director Daniel Slater from Pasha’s Ottoman palace to an expat Russian oligarch’s bling-laden mansion. Selim becomes the billionaire owner of a football team, while the Janissaries, headed by Osmin, are bodyguards in mafioso suits and shades.

Belmonte, here seen as an American college kid, plans to rescue his abducted girlfriend Konstanze and her personal assistant Blonde by applying for the job of team manager. His sidekick Pedrillo is a cockney sports writer with a gift of the gab. The original libretto is sung in German, but the new dialogue is polyglot.

It works surprisingly well, aided by designer Francis O’Connor’s ingenious set which is a riot of pop-up surprises. The wooden wall at the back of the stage is transformed into different floors of the mansion through switching the view seen from the windows and the pictures on the walls in accordance with the floor number displayed on the lift’s indicator. From the kitchen, where the perky Blonde keeps Osmin and his thugs at bay by feeding them freshly-baked cake, we rise to the panoramic windows of the penthouse suite where tai-chi instructors, Thai masseuses, and kick-boxing coaches attempt to entertain Konstanze, reluctant favourite of Selim.

Rebecca Nelsen captures Konstanze as an It-girl who, while mourning the loss of her lover Belmonte, can’t resist shopping trips with Selim, and arrives on stage in open-topped car laden with designer logo carrier bags. She sings the coloratura arias with immaculate style, whether she’s simultaneously kicking the judo instructor in the teeth, or being electrocuted by the evil Osmin. There are times, though, when less stage business would have allowed us to concentrate more on the arias. This is the opera of which Emperor Joseph was said to have commented: “Too many notes, my dear Mozart.”

Susanna Andersson is a fearless Blonde, facing up to bass Matthew Rose’s malevolent Osmin. Norman Reinhardt as Belmonte and Mark Wilde as Pedrillo complement each other well. Aaron Neil, in the speaking part of Selim, is the soccer-crazy despot. Garsington Opera Orchestra under conductor William Lacey gives a lively account of the score.

In the final Rosenblatt recital for 2012-13, South African soprano Pretty Yende took London’s Wigmore Hall by storm in her UK recital debut, with accompanist James Vaughan. Heard only once before in the UK, singing “Summertime” in Cape Town Opera’s 2009 tour of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, the 28-year-old soprano, who grew up in a township, has packed in an award-winning few years, and acclaimed performances at the Met New York and La Scala Milan.

Yende’s voice is lustrous, amazingly agile, and she has the technical skill to tackle the acrobatics of Rossini or Donizetti, with a dizzying “O light of my soul” from the latter’s Linda di Chamounix. She took in Gershwin and Bernstein too, (“I feel pretty” from West Side Story).

Four Rosenblatt Recitals from the 2012-13 season will be broadcast on Sky Arts on Monday evenings from July 15 to August 5. For information visit rosenblattrecitals.com.

Mozart’s The Abduction from  the Seraglio

Garsington Opera at Wormsley

Near Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire

(Tickets: 01865 361 636; £95-£170)

Verdict: 4/5

Pretty Yende

Rosenblatt Recitals

Wigmore Hall, London W1 (one night only)

Verdict: 4/5