Mozart steals the festival

5 / 5 stars
Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio)

EUROPE'S fascination with the romance of the Orient was at its height when Mozart wrote Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio).

The Abduction from the Seraglio, Don Giovanni, opera, review, Clare ColvinPH

GLYNDEBOURNE TRIUMPH: Konstanze and Belmonte watched by Mute in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail

A century earlier, Vienna had trembled as the “terrible Turk” besieged the city. By the time Mozart’s opera was premiered in 1782 the Ottoman Empire had been driven back to the Middle East and the relationship with Istanbul was one of commerce, not war.

Mozart’s oriental comedy is set in the Seraglio of a palace. Aristocratic Konstanze and her English maid Blonde have been kidnapped by pirates and sold as slaves to the Pasha Selim. Spanish nobleman Belmonte and his servant Pedrillo determine to outwit Osmin, the Pasha’s henchman, and rescue their sweethearts.

David McVicar’s evocative staging begins with the sight of Edgaras Montvidas’s Belmonte being pestered by hawkers as he disembarks on the Bosphorus.

In a neat counterpoint, the Pasha is besieged by European sellers of paintings and sculptures. Among them is Belmonte, who is hired as palace architect. Once there, Belmonte teams up with Pedrillo (Brenden Gunnell), gardener under Osmin.

While Konstanze stalls Selim’s advances with pleas for more time, her feisty maid declares that an Englishwoman is born free and “nobody makes me do anything”.

As Blonde, Norwegian Mari Eriksmoen’s kitchen spat of egg throwing and plate smashing is a joy to behold. Young German Tobias Kehrer seizes on the role of Osmin with fierce energy. Mozart’s most taxing arias were written for the soprano role of Konstanze, which may have inspired Emperor Joseph II’s famous critique of Seraglio: “Too many notes, my dear Mozart.”

Sally Matthews, as Konstanze, rises gloriously to the challenge of her bravura “Martern aller Arten” (Every kind of torture), as she defies the Pasha.

In the speaking role of Selim, actor Franck Saurel, who began his career with the Theatre du Soleil, looks a credible contestant for the hand of Konstanze.

Vicki Mortimer’s design of lattice screens opening on to a glittering sea is elegantly suggestive of the East, subtly lit by Paule Constable. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Robin Ticciati is in lively form, and the uncut dialogue is not a moment too long. 

What a contrast with the Royal Opera’s approach to Mozart in Kasper Holten’s revival of Don Giovanni.

The technical wizardry of Luke Halls’s video designs projected on to Es Devlin’s revolving cube dominates the evening. My unsuspecting guest was overcome by dizziness at the video kaleidoscope of Escher-style stairways during Don Giovanni’s aria in praise of excess.

Christopher Maltman’s Giovanni signals from the start that his dissipated life is taking its toll.

Retribution comes not in hellfire, but in a panic attack that leaves him in his own hell of emptiness.

There is a weirdly misogynist element in some directorial innovations. Donna Anna (Albina Shagimuratova) is aware of her supposed assailant’s identity but slides off for a tryst with Giovanni, even after he has murdered her father, while Julia Lezhneva’s Zerlina gleefully rips her bodice and cries rape before Giovanni has laid a finger on her.

There is little to fault, though, with Alex Esposito’s definitive Leporello, Dorothea Roschmann’s imperious Donna Elvira and Eric Halfvarson’s sonorous Commendatore. Rolando Villazon returns to Covent Garden as Don Ottavio and Nahuel di Pierro is a vengeful Masetto, Zerlina’s wronged husband.

VERDICT:3/5

BP Big Screen: Don Giovanni Live screening from July 3 to 20, locations across UK: roh.org.uk/about/bp-big-screen BBC Radio 3 broadcast July 13, 7pm

Glyndebourne Seraglio will be broadcast live in cinema and online on July 19 and semi-staged at BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall on August 14.

Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) AT Glyndebourne Festival Opera Nr Lewes, East Sussex (Tickets: 01273 815000/ glyndebourne.com; £50-£225)

Mozart’s Don Giovanni Royal Opera Royal Opera House, London WC2 (Tickets: 020 7304 4000/roh.org.uk; £9-£190)

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