Prom 39: Mozart – The Abduction from the Seraglio (14.08.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:00
Royal Albert Hall

Live at BBC Proms: Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and conductor Robin Ticciati perform Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) by Mozart.

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio)

Belmonte ..... Edgaras Montvidas, tenor
Konstanze ..... Sally Matthews, soprano
Blonde ..... Mari Eriksmoen, soprano
Pedrillo ..... Brenden Patrick Gunnell, tenor
Osmin ..... Tobias Kehrer, bass
Pasha Selim ..... Franck Saurel, actor
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Energy and good humour meet musical exoticism in Mozart's earliest operatic success - the storybook fantasy The Abduction from the Seraglio. Inspired by the 18th-century vogue for all things Eastern, Die Entführung tells the tale of the young Spanish nobleman Belmonte as he attempts to rescue his fiancée Konstanze from the seraglio (harem) of Pasha Selim, a Turkish despot. Aided by his servant Pedrillo, who wishes to be reunited with Konstanze's maid Blonde, they set out to outwit the fearsome Osmin with their flight, but instead fall to the mercy of the Pasha ...
Die Entführung boasts some of Mozart's most spectacularly virtuosic vocal music, particularly for its brave heroine, Konstanze. Glyndebourne Festival Opera returns for its annual visit to the Proms under Music Director Robin Ticciati, with an international cast led by British soprano Sally Matthews and Lithuanian tenor Edgaras Montvidas. This semi-staged production is sung and spoken in German.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Note that, unlike Orfeo, this performance, has not one, but TWO intervals.

[David-G]

This was marvellous at Glyndebourne. Highly recommended. But be prepared for a large amount of spoken dialogue.

[Darkbloom]

This was marvellous at Glyndebourne. Highly recommended. But be prepared for a large amount of spoken dialogue.

I'd rather that than the way they sometimes use a narration to link the numbers, as they did for Fidelio a few years ago and Fledermaus a few years before that. It's a very unsatisfying way to present opera when they do it like that.

[David-G]

Me too. The way this was presented, and the inclusion of all the dialogue, made "Entführung" a much more serious opera than I had ever thought it. And Osmin a much more formidable opponent.

[Darkbloom]

Me too. The way this was presented, and the inclusion of all the dialogue, made "Entführung" a much more serious opera than I had ever thought it. And Osmin a much more formidable opponent.

I haven't seen it for a long time. The only time was when they did it at CG, so I am looking forward to seeing it again. I have never found spoken dialogue a problem, personally. The long periods of recitative in Rameau, for example, I find much harder to listen to. The big drawback in this opera is finding a good Osmin with sufficient low notes to carry beyond the stage. The Osmin I saw was Kurt Rydl (a truly awful singer, in my experience) who shouted his way through the whole thing. Despite being a buffo-ish character, he should still carry some menace (I don't think his threats are hollow ones), and if he can really rattle the windows so much the better.

[gurnemanz]

It is a Singspiel (a play with singing) rather than an opera, therefore done in German with the original audience able to follow the plot. The last few times we have seen original-language opera at the Proms they have provided full librettos + translation rather than using surtitles, which is what I assume they will do this time.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Presumably the spoken dialogue will be in English (with the singing in German)?

[Bert Coules]

Pity the whole thing won't be in English.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Opera North, being an offshoot of Sadlers Wells/ENO, used to perform in English, but began to sing Italian operas in the original language. However, they continued to perform Singspiel operas in English for a while. This seemed to be a good compromise.

[Bert Coules]

Yes, better that approach than no English-language performances at all, but personally I see absolutely no point whatsoever in staging any drama in a language which the audience cannot immediately understand and respond to on an unconscious and emotional level.

But I know of course that this is a very old and much-debated matter which can surely never be resolved to everybody's satisfaction.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But I know of course that this is a very old and much-debated matter which can surely never be resolved to everybody's satisfaction.

Indeed - and my own preference is to avoid English translations of opera and lieder etc. Not merely because of vowel sounds corresponding to notes and rhythmical stressing etc etc etc, but also because even when singing in English, it's impossible to tell what words the singers are supposed to be producing. Fortunately, the orchestra and melodic lines of the voices provide the "immediate understand[ing]".

It does make for an unusual experience in singspiel - the Music in German and the spoken dialogue in English! But no more illogical than what is required from the libretto (?"buchlein"?) of Die Zauberflote!

[Bert Coules]

Fortunately, the orchestra and melodic lines of the voices provide the "immediate understand[ing]".

Now that - of course - is something on which we'll very definitely have to agree to disagree!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I listened to some of this, but this is, perhaps, an opera that needs to be seen as well as heard.

[Darkbloom]

Indeed - and my own preference is to avoid English translations of opera and lieder etc. Not merely because of vowel sounds corresponding to notes and rhythmical stressing etc etc etc, but also because even when singing in English, it's impossible to tell what words the singers are supposed to be producing. Fortunately, the orchestra and melodic lines of the voices provide the "immediate understand[ing]".

I thought this was a very disappointing performance in many ways. Chief culprit was Ticciati - if he was a jockey he would have been disqualified for over-use of the whip. It was all Period mannerism with no heart, giving the music (or the poor singers) little time to breathe. It sounded too often as though the cast were being forced to accompany a CD soundtrack that was on the blink - the ensembles were a terrible hurry-scurry at times. There are so many things to be grateful to the HIPP movement for, but in the wrong hands you get the sort of dry, by-the-numbers performance I heard last night. There is a certain sense in asking 'what would Mozart do?', but when that comes at the risk of ignoring the capabilities of your singers then you are going to be heading for trouble.

It's hard to be too critical of the singers under these circumstances, but I don't think you could say that the Belmonte and Konstanze were out of the top drawer. Montvidas's bleating tenor was a trial all evening, and Matthews's German diction was almost non-existent, leading to the sense of a very generalised, uninvolving interpretation. Best of the bunch was Kehrer as Osmin - it was good to hear a proper bass with decent low notes, not just a hollow growl - who gave the most finished performance of the night. Blonde and Pedrillo were also good, doing their best to keep up with a conductor who seemed to think that it was their job to accompany him.

I was planning to see this but listened on the radio instead. I am glad I changed my mind because it sounded a very long evening, and only partly because of the inclusion of all of the dialogue. It does seem a little unfortunate that Glyndebourne's music director is someone who doesn't appear to be all that interested in singers. At least we didn't have to hear him murdering Figaro - I think that would have ruined my mood for the rest of the week.