The best opera video I have seen of Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio," with a fine young cast, with good voices but without big reputations, Sir Georg Solti ably conducting the Covent Garden orchestra, and with Elijah Moshinsky's subtle and moving production, which brings out the strain within the Enlightenment values of the text.
Abduction, for those who don't know it, is a youthful work, like The Magic Flute a comic Singspiel with spoken dialog, and indeed the characters and themes are similar to those of The Magic Flute.
Like Sarastro, the oriental pasha is an Enlightenment prince; he loves Kostanze but surrenders her to her European lover Belmonte because he knows that love cannot be constrained. And as in The Magic Flute, the principal soprano has marvelous melodies to sing and needs great flexibility of voice.
Abduction, for those who don't know it, is a youthful work, like The Magic Flute a comic Singspiel with spoken dialog, and indeed the characters and themes are similar to those of The Magic Flute.
Like Sarastro, the oriental pasha is an Enlightenment prince; he loves Kostanze but surrenders her to her European lover Belmonte because he knows that love cannot be constrained. And as in The Magic Flute, the principal soprano has marvelous melodies to sing and needs great flexibility of voice.
