Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Find out more about Mozart's dazzling drama.
A brief introduction:
When Konstanze and her maid Blonde are kidnapped by pirates and sold into Pasha Selim’s harem, they plot their escape. Helped by Konstanze’s lover Belmonte (and hindered by Selim’s henchman Osmin) they almost achieve it. But when their plan fails at the last moment, kindness comes from an unexpected source…
Die Entführung aus dem Serail was Mozart’s first opera for Vienna – an ambitious calling card intended to establish him at the musical heart of this sophisticated society, and a tender music-drama that anticipates the Da Ponte operas to come.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Festival 2015. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
Why not to miss it:
Praised as “sensitive” and “erotic”, David McVicar’s 2015 staging is as gorgeous as it is thoughtful. Designer Vicki Mortimer creates a sumptuous fantasy of an 18th-century Turkish palace, complete with fountains, gardens and screens: a playground in which the tensions, desires, conflicts and negotiations of this East-meets-West drama unfold.
Bright orchestral colours and crunchy, percussive textures give the score its distinctive exoticism and energy. Add this to some of the most demanding, dazzling and virtuosic arias the composer ever wrote, and you have a work whose musical attractions are undeniable.
Watch this short film where soprano Liv Redpath shares her excitement at the chance to play Konstanze for the first time:
A great moment to look out for:
The bravura centrepiece of Die Entführung is Konstanze’s 10-minute showpiece “Martern aller Arten” – a fascinating aria both technically and psychologically. The Pasha urges his love, but Konstanze refuses to betray Belmonte, saying she would rather suffer torture than submit. Hear how Mozart takes pragmatic considerations – a demanding prima donna and a Viennese audience who enjoy display – and turns them into dramatic necessities.
The aria has an unusually long orchestral introduction, introducing 4 instrumental soloists (flute, oboe, violin, cello) who join Konstanze in this amplified, wide-screen music. Furious volleys of semiquaver coloratura and some wide leaps express the heroine’s overflowing, rage and passion, though whether directed towards herself and her desire for the Pasha or at him is unclear. Perhaps, like Fiordiligi’s “Come Scoglio”, it is both: a supreme, self-galvanising performance of protestation.
Cast and creative team:
Canadian conductor Jordan de Souza – who made an impressive Glyndebourne debut with 2022’s La bohème – returns to helm this first revival of David McVicar’s classic production.
He’s joined by a cast of major new talent, including both UK and Festival debuts from prize-winning Cuban-Colombian tenor Anthony León as Belmonte and French soprano Julie Roset as Blonde, as well as a Festival debut from American tenor Thomas Cilluffo as Pedrillo
American soprano Liv Redpath returns to sing Konstanze, with British bass-baritone Michael Mofidian returning as Osmin.
Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Festival 2015. Photo: Richard Hubert Smith
with a Syndicate and Circle of Individuals
To find out more about production support for Festival 2026 click here
or contact our Director of Development, Helen McCarthy for an informal chat:
call 01273 013 308 or email helen.mccarthy@glyndebourne.com
