Customer Reviews

Mozart - Die Entführung aus dem Serail / Schäfer, Petibon, Bostridge, Paton, Ewing, Löw, Les Arts Florissants, Christie

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was eagerly awaiting this recording. I was pretty much ready to pay an arm and a leg for it, so I almost ordered it from overseas because I was getting tired of waiting for it to be released in the U.S. Somehow I managed to wait, and my patience was rewarded by this cheap price from Amazon ($23 is not bad!). I am not a Mozart fan per se; I'm a Christie fan. If not for Christie, I probably wouldn't be in a such a hurry to get acquainted with Die Entfuhrung. It is the authenticity and elegance of Christie's direction that attracted me to this recording, and I knew I could count on the highest quality. I wasn't disappointed. In fact I'll be surprised if this recording doesn't win some major prizes this year. Les Arts Florissants orchestra delights with crisp and virtuosic playing (especially the violins). The cast is excellent. Christine Schafer has been deservedly praised for her Konstanze: her bright and clear soprano carries Konstanze's difficult coloratura arias convincingly and impeccably. Alan Ewing's deep but elegant and expressive bass is very appropriate for Osmin. The light voiced Patricia Petibon is enchanting as Blonde. The tenors in the roles of Belmonte and Pedrillo are a good match for each other. The spoken dialogue is superbly acted: pretty amazing considering that half of the cast are English. Iain Paton's German pronunciation is well nigh perfect! Since drama in Mozart operas is always so important, the attention paid by Les Arts Florissants to every detail of intonation, inflexion and timing really pays off. Let's face it, the main attraction on this recording is Ian Bostridge. Christie must have realized that this was going to be the case when he decided to sign up Bostridge instead of one of Les Arts Florissants regular tenors like, say, Paul Agnew. Christie wasn't mistaken: Die Entfuhrung has turned out to be the best selling Les Arts Florissants recording ever. I never before heard Bostridge in opera, so I was really curious as to whether he would bring to the recording some extra artistic merit, in addition to serving as a box office draw. I must say that although his Belmonte is very good, I am not convinced that Paul Agnew could not have done the job. Moreover, Bostridge's and Paton's singing voices on this recording sound distressingly alike. Their speaking voices are easier to distinguish. In fact, Bostridge talks exactly like he sings, which is probably one of the reasons that he is such a superlative leader interpreter. Part of me says: it's good that Bostridge took part in this recording, look - Christie can sign up the hottest star. But another part of me, the hard-core LAF fan, is a bit sore that Christie passed up on some of his old faithful tenors in favor of a dazzling cameo. Overall, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail exhibits the superb craftsmanship and maturity of Les Arts Florissants, but perhaps not the magic of some of their earlier operatic productions such as Medee or La Descente d'Orphee aux Enfers.

A wonderful and fun recording. The cast are all great, a little light voiced, but this is a singspiel after all. So the casting is appropriate. The orchestra and chorus are fantastic. Christie's tempos and conducting are perfect. The digital sound is great. I was extremely pleased. Energetic and appropriately "Turkish." The drums and exotic effects shine through better with a smaller ensemble and authentic instruments. This is not the first time that I have heard the charming little march. A budget recording I had bought from Laserlight had an excerpt of a recording by the RIAS chamber chorus and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra that included the little march and the following chorus. Not having heard Gardiner's Abduction recording, I cannot cast a vote between them, but Gramophone criticized Gardiner's Abduction for being too serious. In Christie's hands though, the charm of the opera shines through as if Mozart himself was conducting.

I have been listening to entfuhrung since 1970 and have heard many recording. This album is definitely the best...far better that Solti overpowering on London with the flamboyancy of Edita Gruberova. This is definitely the set to buy. Christie's tempo is right on the money and all singers are in excellent shape and provide best interpretation. I just love this set.

Hey avid music lovers and Mozart aficionados, let me fill you in with some insiders stories about this recording. I was fortunate to be the assistant director in the Strasburg Opera production (that's Strasburg in Alsace, France, not Salzburg, Austria) from which this recording originated. It was first mounted in 1995, and the cast was the same as on the record, except for Belmonte, sung (beautifully) by the French tenor Yann Beuron, and Konstanze (Rosa Mannion). The director was the Brit. and exquisite person Stephen Lawless. It was, I believe, young Patricia Petibon's first outing on stage - she was great, but had a STROOONG French accent. Blonde is supposed to be an English maid - not here !

The production was revived two years later in view of the recording, still with Rosa Mannion, but with up-and-coming Ian Bostridge as Belmonte - more hip than Beuron, I s'pose, but not necessarily better. Bostridge (also the author of a Phd thesis on Witchcraft in 17th century England!) has a silky, light mozartean tenor voice (Beuron had more of a Bach evangelist), but also very frail and insecure, and there was much stagewise that Beuron did two years earlier and that he refused to do. By then, Petibon had also made tremendous progress with her German accent. An anecdote: the production's concept of an English maid had been changed to that of a French maid to accommodate for her supposedly still French accent, but that implied obtaining Christie's approval to change a line of text and rhythm, in the Blonde-Osmin duett: "ihr Engländer" to "ihr Franzoser". When that finally came, Petibon actually had a hard time going back to a French accent in the the spoken text. But you needn't worry: none of that is on the record.

The idea was that the recording would benefit from the stage-life atmosphere brought by the performers participation to the recent production. Sadly, it turned out that Rosa Mannion was vocally worn in that revival, and finally she couldn't make the recording. I think she interrupted her career shortly after - a pity, as she is a wonderful person. Schäfer then jumped in, but only for the recording sessions then - hence perhaps the lack of involvement that some (not me) hear in her performance. And the last stroke: on the recording session days, it is Petibon that fell ill and couldn't sing. She was subsequently dubbed over the orchestra - nicely done: even knowing it I certainly cannot detect it, and no-one seems to have. Hence also the fact that it is an actress and not herself who delivers her spoken text in the recording - it is nicely done and the voices match acceptably, but still extremely frustrating when one has witnessed the wit and spirit of her exchanges with Osmin and Pedrillo on stage! Now that is a big loss!

By Christie's own admission, his big influence in shaping his ideas on Entführung was... the recording of Sir Thomas Beecham. Not a bad model, either, and that probably explains the beautifully balanced classicism of Christie's approach. It is played on period instruments, but without any of the sometimes convincing but often provoking excesses of tempo or dynamics that are the trademark of period-instrument conductors such as Norrington or Harnoncourt.

A last word on the production of Stephen Lawless. An unassuming man and (possibly consequently) underrated director, Stephen (who'd stepped in very late, following the cancellation by a first director) did a marvelous job, with the help of beautiful sets designed by the young Belgian Benoît Dugardyn, always finding convincing solutions to the riddles and apparent inconsistencies of the Libretto. What was of particular value in Lawless' approach was that he did not take Mozart's characters, as it is still too often done, as mere cardboard caricatures, but as characters of flesh and blood, and mind and feelings. One of the main themes his staging seeked to underline was that of the nagging doubt underlying each character's sentiment and love for his partner: Belmonte doubts Konstanze's love (he explicitly says so in his first aria), and that doubt may have some grounding, as Konstanze herself, despite her fiery rejection, may feel a secret attraction to Selim (easy to understand, when he's played by an actor as seductive as Jurg Low) - which makes her rejection of him all the more fiery. Pedrillo of course doubts Blonde, but she is not at all displeased to have two puppets to play with - and her ways do drive Osmin crazy. And Osmin is not just a ruthless brute, he is a refined, suffering man in love (wonderfully played by Alan Ewing), and his cruelty only derives from being cheated and abandoned. And what convices love-forlorn and betrayed Selim not to put the runaway Konstanze-Belmonte couple to death is not just a bout of sublime but unaccounted for clemency, it is the realization that his own love to Konztance will never reach the profoundity of the couple's love for one another in the face of incoming death. This theme of love strengthening through the tests and trials of doubt and threat of death runs deep in all of Mozart's operas, and I hope and believe some of that spirit is heard on the recording. Enjoy!

I am, without question, a Mozartean to the end and have heard many recordings of the "Abduction from the Seraglio" but this has got to be one of the most charming and effervescent performances ever committed to record. Christine Schafer imbues Konstanze with real blood and guts and her vocal prowess could hardly be improved upon. Bostridge is a little on the light side but, nevertheless, gives a beautifully phrased and elegant performance. The Blonde of Patricia Petibon is equally wonderful; her shimmering voice rising to meet the demands of the role. The remaining singers are all good though some, definetely,prove more apt than others. Les Arts Florissant under William Christie's direction are, as one has come to expect from them, wonderful and lively. His tempos are right on the money and he moves the actions along both steadily and beautifully. A jewel-box of a performance and one which I have come to treasure.

Mozart's "Abduction" opera is always a problem to perform, and perhaps always was even in Mozart's time. Unless you have JUST the right cast and conductor, it fails to jell. William Christie, an excellent musician, has assembled a good cast here, but the sum of the whole cannot overcome the somewhat indifferent singing and playing, no matter how technically brilliant.

Of the soloists, pride of place goes to Patricia Petibon's Blonde and Alan Ewing's Osmin. Whether in solo, duet ("Ich gehe, duch rate ich dir") or in ensemble, it is the life and lift that these two wonderful singers give to the music that makes the performance come to life. Christine Schafer, who is usually excellent live (her Met Opera performances of "Lulu" are nearly legendary), for some strange reason often sounds disinterested on records, and that is the case here. Her best moment is "Martern aller arten," but it is not nearly as good as the recordings by Anneliese Rothenberger or Cristina Deutekom, and her "Traurigkeit" is a yawner (whereas Rothenberger and Deutekom bring it to glorious life). Ian Bostridge is a good Belmonte, small g, but no real competition for the great Leopold Simoneau or Fritz Wunderlich. Christie conducts well, his tempi are fine, but this recording really has the feel of a hothouse performance, not a flesh-and-blood one.

If you need a digital "Abduction," this is the best of a mediocre lot, but if you want the best "Abduction" on CD you must get the July 1965 Salzburg performance with Rothenberger, Reri Grist, Wunderlich and Fernando Corena on Orfeo (ASIN: B0000044WT). Believe me, you'll be glad you did.

I just got it a few days ago and I've already worn it out(with my neighbors that is). I like to crank up the volume for the finale, which is now well engraved into my memory. This opera is a tenor lover's dream. The cast members are all in good voice. I am very pleased.

William Christie conducts a magical performance of Mozart's peerless singspiel, with Les Arts Florissants feeling quite at home in Mozart's sound world, as if they were playing Rameau or Charpentier. But Christine Schafer's kind of soprano is wrong for the huge and very demanding role of Konstanze, a bigger more opulent voice is needed. Sure Schafer has all the notes, but she sounds pushed to her limits, which is always uncomfortable to listen. Konstanze calls for a Margaret Price voice (she was unbelievable at Glyndebourne in the early 70's). Ian Bostridge is good, but nowhere as good as Wunderlich, Schreier or Francisco Araiza. The Osmin too, could have been improved easily. The orchestra and chorus are glorious, and for them alone I would buy this recording. But if you are on a budget, I think you should consider the Gardiner recording in Archiv. Sir John's performance is very fine indeed, though I prefer Christie's direction, but there is no comparison between the rich voiced Luba Orgonasova Konstanze and Schafer's. The slovak soprano has what it takes, and the mellow American Belmonte is easier on the ears than Bostridge. Gardiner's Osmin is also disappointing. (Kurt Moll where were you????).

Die Entfhurung has always been unknown, and barely performed. Christie does a very good job at interpreting Mozart. The music is beautiful, and under Christie, the music is even more beautiful. The cast is very good, although, the Constanze goes a little to high and it does not make a very good sound and hurts my ears. The Belmonte, Ian Bostrige is very good as well. the orchestra does its usual great perfomance, the booklet contains synopsis and bio's on te artists. The recording contains the rare march. Chrisitie's Period instrument bands are good and the interpretation is beautiful. Get this recording or the One by Davis its worth [the price]!

A TASTY GROUP OF SOLOISTS DELIVER A DELICIOUS MOZART!

We need to imagine Mozart at the time of the creation of this opera, desperate to prove himself an operatic big-leaguer, but he doesn't yet know his own strength. However, for the first time his operatic voice explodes beyond the confines of the immediate situation.

Who else would have heard in this conventional harem-rescue story such cosmic resonances? Mozart's fascination with the inner workings of the human spirit even makes of Osmin far more than a stock comic character.
Example: his brooding entrance song projects depth, resonance and fluency.

This opera has been described as having a "patchwork" of ingredients: now serious, now comic, drawing on varied traditions and all held together by the boisterous Turkish music. Nonetheless the whole thing sparkles and moves quickly and lightly forward at a comfortable pace. Even the dialogue does not "bog down" as in some German speaking operas.

I think that the singers were very well chosen as to their voice types. For example the 2 tenors are both good and sound very different from each other; Bostridge leaning more to high tenor whereas Paton has an evenness of sound that suits his role. I especially enjoyed the lovely light soumd of Petibon's soprano. Alan Ewing with his excellent basso assumes the role of the comic(Osmin) and does a marvelous job of it! I have two other recordings of this opera.This is by far the best!!!!!