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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Break-in at the Harem, December 7, 2003
This review is from: Mozart - Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) / Minkowski, Schafer, Groves, Tillawi, Salzburg Festival (DVD)
This production of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio is sung in German, with English subtitles only. The first thing you'll notice is that this is done in a more contemporary setting, with modern clothes, styles, and concertina wire around the building. The Pasha wears a suit and tie, as does Constanze. Oh, and the Pasha preaches to his harem in Arabic (with English subtitles). This gives the production a more Arab perspective than is customary. Blonde and Osmin are a delightful and playful couple who, by themselves could make this production a success. Constanze sings remarkably well, the "Marten alle Arten" aria beginning with four of the musicians on stage, each introducing the theme--a unique and effective touch. This production ends, believe it or not, with the Pasha dancing as a sort of Whirling Dervish, but it fits and it works! If you have never seen a production of the Abduction from the Seraglio, it might be better to start with the 2002 version done by Zubin Mehta and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a more traditional Mozart. This Salzburg production appeals more to those looking for "a different take." It's good, but it might be easier to start with a more basic, traditional version. This is well-done; it's just different.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful musically, less so stage-wise, June 4, 2005
This review is from: Mozart - Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) / Minkowski, Schafer, Groves, Tillawi, Salzburg Festival (DVD)
The production is well centred within the Mortier ideology during his reign as the Salzburg Fsetival's Director. For this 1997 production, not staged in the Festspielhaus but in the court of the Residenzhof, he hired Francois Abou-Salem as Director, who took full advantage of the opportunity and came out with a late-XX Century updating of the work that frontally addresses the everyday EU-Muslim controversy, with modern day clothing (both western and middle-eastern, depending on where the characters come from), middle eastern athmosphere décors and ambience and considerable tinkering, mostly on the dialogue but also on the music: as for the dialogue, arabic texts are introduced in fair quantity along the modified german text (in which all reference to the Lostados familiy Belmonte belongs to is done away with), and traditional turkish music is introduced in selected spots, more often than not with interesting results but with an important miscalculation when a melody is played between the famous vaudeville and the chorus that closes the work. There is a philosophical issue behind all this, which may be more of an issue to Western Europeans than to people from the Americas or the Far East, where the muslim/christian encounter of cultures and difficulty of understanding that is accompanied by the assimilation or preservation dilemma facing immigrants of Muslim-countries provenance is less of an everyday problem. Any way, the staging is interesting and one may end buying the concept, barbed-wire and gun-toting (Kalashnikovs, of course) thugs and all, but if you are for more traditional stagings, give these considerations a thought before buying this otherwise excellent performance of this wonderful work, for you may end up turning the telly off and just listening to the music. Thence the four stars, as I prefer to award when condering opera DVD's in which the staging won't appeal to all tastes in spite of the DVD's fully deserving the fifth one on its musical merits.
The vocal quintet is outstanding. As in most live performances, one has to let pass the odd imperfection here and there which in a studio performance would be corrected in patch-up sessions; Schaefer is the usual outstanding singer one has come to expect, although some contemporary press reviews suggested she might be singing somewhat stressfully (and what if she is in a couple of notes? the Konstanze role is fiendishfully difficult and cruel to the soprano, who not only must deal with hard coloratura work but must also descend to un-sopranistic lows from which an immediate jump to very hight notes is requested -Schaefer acquits most successfully). Other basses have had better low notes than Hawlata, but he is a very successsful Osmin none the less and an outstanding comedian (the wine drinking scene is a delight and will really make you laugh yet avoids overdoing or uncalled for farce). Hartelius makes for a very credible rebel englishwoman (as self-proclaimed to be by Blonde whilst rebuking Osmin's courting) with striking looks also, and Conrad makes for an heroic-sounding Pedrillo; Groves's voice is sweet and very well suited to the part, but looks less sure of himself, perhaps because of language handling difficulties speciallt in the spoken parts (he's the only non-german speaker among the principals). The Pasha is assumed by an actor of obviuos middle-eastern provenance whose handsome looks impact Konstanze's hardship of choosing most appropriately, an issue well taken care of by Schaefer herself.
The Mozarteum Orchestra play wonderfully (with on-stage solists for the Marten-arie) and are enthusiatically conducted by Minkowski, who reveals himself to have a solid grasp of the mozartian idiom and conducts the work exhuberantly, if a trifle on the fast side. The chorus is rather distantly picked up by the microphones but general sound quality is quite good.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely super.. beautiful and entertaining, July 12, 2003
This review is from: Mozart - Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) / Minkowski, Schafer, Groves, Tillawi, Salzburg Festival (DVD)
I agree with othere that this version is unconventional, but also hasten to point out that the performers are really great. I do believe that Mozart would have been pleased, even if a bit dismayed by the razor-wire and submachine guns. It is really nice to see talented young performers do Mozart well and having fun doing it. I have a conventional version and clearly and strongly prefer this one.
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