Product Details

• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: View Video
• VHS Release Date: August 1, 1996
• Run Time: 129 minutes
• ASIN: 6300265668
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #424,530 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Actor

Libretto in German by Gottlob Stephanie
Based on a play by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner
World Premiere: Vienna Burgtheatre- July 16, 1782
US Premiere: Brooklyn, N.Y., Athenaeum- February 16, 1860

Performed by: The Dresden State Opera
Conducted by: Harry Kupfer
Place: Turkey
Time: 16th Century

Product Description

Mozart was barely 26 years of age when he composed The Abduction, during one of the happiest times of his short life. Very much in love with Konstanze Weber, he married her just three weeks after the opera's premiere. The first name of his fiancé was also the name of the heroine of the opera.

The delight in his life is reflected in the music, which is some of his finest and most highly expressive. It includes one of the most famous of all coloratura soprano arias, "Martern aller arten (Torture me and flay me)," in which the heroine defies the Pasha's advances, though torture and death may face her.

This enactment was not so much an opera as what the Viennese called a "Singspiel" (a song-play). The action is furthered through spoken dialogue, while the characters break into song to express strong emotions.

18th Century Vienna was enamored about anything Turkish: dress styles, hair-dos, stories, even Turkish music. This production of the opera reflect this Turkish fad. It's a comedy about Europeans in a Turkish Pasha's harem, complete with the serious hero and heroine, with this comic relief provided by the hero's manservant and the heroine's maid. The most memorable character, however, is OSMIN, the overseer of the harem, one of the great comic figures in opera. Osmin is one of Mozart's great creations, as genuinely and consistently comic in music as in action, but potentially dangerous as he is laughable.

This wonderfully entertaining production is beautifully staged and perfectly sung by the Dresden State Opera, conducted by Harry Kupfer. This musical masterpiece is part of the most famous treasures of classical heritage.