Mozart: The Abduction from the Seraglio

The essence of Mozart is revived, in French, in this masterpiece of opéra-comique.

In 1781, a young Mozart left the city of Salzburg and his post amid hostilities with his employer, Archbishop Colloredo. He moved to Vienna, the capital of music, which he set about conquering. To do so, the young composer endeavoured to make a name for himself at the opera, seizing on the commission from Emperor Joseph II for the Burgtheater. He composed an opera that was far removed from the highly codified opera seria, developing a more national genre, the Singspiel, a musical comedy that would be his first opera in German.

The piece was premièred a month after he finished composing it, in July 1782, conducted by Mozart himself. It was a triumph, and the emperor congratulated Mozart with these now-famous words: “Too beautiful for our ears, my dear Mozart, and an awful lot of notes.”   To which the composer's impish retort was: “Exactly as many as are necessary, Your Majesty.”   The opera was performed again in Vienna, followed by Prague, Leipzig and Salzburg, marking the start of the twenty-six-year-old Mozart’s Viennese career!

The emperor, like the rest of audience, was no doubt won over and captivated by the audacity of the composition, with its multiple effects and irresistible joy. Here, Mozart yields to Turkish fashions in both his choice of subject and the use of instruments evoking an Eastern touch, such as the piccolo or triangle and the cymbal, which can be heard from the very opening, simulating the fanfares of the Janissaries.
Gaétan Jarry directs the choirs and orchestra of the Opéra Royal, restoring all the flavour to Mozart’s music, seasoned with a mise en scene by the great opera enthusiast Michel Fau, and in a French-language version that feels utterly natural!

This performance is supported by the Françoise Kahn-Hamm Endowment Fund