Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K384

Laura Aikin (Konstanze), Edgaras Montvidas (Belmonte), Kurt Rydl (Osmin), Mojca Erdmann (Blonde), Michael Smallwood (Pedrillo), Steven Van Watermeulen (Bassa Selim)

The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra & Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera, Constantinos Carydis (musical director) & Johan Simons...

Director Johan Simons's take on Die Entführung is summed up by a remark in one of the accompanying interviews: 'At the end people see that the Pasha is a much better match for Konstanze than... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 5th Jan 2009
Catalogue No: OABD7017D
Label: Opus Arte

Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K384

Recorded live at Het Musiektheater, Amsterdam on 2nd, 7th & 19th February 2008.
Laura Aikin (Konstanze), Edgaras Montvidas (Belmonte), Kurt Rydl (Osmin), Mojca Erdmann (Blonde), Michael Smallwood (Pedrillo), Steven Van Watermeulen (Bassa Selim)
The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra & Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera
Constantinos Carydis (musical director) & Johan Simons (stage director)

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Johan Simons’ feisty production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an intelligently innovative account of Mozart’s 1782 comic tale of abduction, love, loyalty and forgiveness. Kurt Rydl’s Osmin is hilarious, with just the right edge of latent thuggery; Mojca Erdmann’s smart and cheeky Blonde sports a red riding coat, high latex boots and a belt that she is not afraid to use on the men; Michael Smallwood makes a charming, suave and mocking Pedrillo. Laura Aikin’s Konstanze, torn between true love and obligation, reveals a vast range of human emotions and Edgaras Montvidas’ Belmonte portrays his coming-of-age with clarity and genuine charisma. The performance is whipped up to a feverish pitch in the pit by Constantinos Carydis, the orchestra and chorus responding with fleet virtuosity. Bluntly ‘theatre about theatre’, this ground-breaking performance delivers everything one could wish for from a Mozart opera, combining thrilling energy with a profound sense of lyrical beauty and truth.

Bonus material/features:

Illustrated synopsis & cast gallery.

Interviews with the cast.

Behind the scenes documentary.

“Athenian wonder boy Constantinos Carydis has everything you could want from a Mozart conductor, combining manic energy with perfectionism and a profound sense of lyrical beauty.” Bloomberg News

Note: This Blu-ray Disc (BD) is not compatible with standard DVD players

PICTURE FORMAT: 1080i
LENGTH: 214 Mins
SOUND: DOLBY TRUEHD 5.0 & 2.0
SUBTITLES: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT/NE

Artists

Laura Aikin (Konstanze), Edgaras Montvidas (Belmonte), Kurt Rydl (Osmin), Mojca Erdmann (Blonde), Michael Smallwood (Pedrillo), Steven Van Watermeulen (Bassa Selim)

The Netherlands Chamber Orchestra & Chorus of De Nederlandse Opera, Constantinos Carydis (musical director) & Johan Simons (stage director)

Reviews

2010

Director Johan Simons's take on Die Entführung is summed up by a remark in one of the accompanying interviews: 'At the end people see that the Pasha is a much better match for Konstanze than Belmonte is.' Other productions have suggested a mutual attraction between the heroine and her oriental captor. Simons carries this to extremes. His staging is dominated by Konstanze's inner struggle between her loyalty to her betrothed and her disturbing feelings for the man who, we sense, has awakened her sexually.
Far from resisting his advances, she and the youthful, half-westernised Pasha, subtly and believably portrayed by Steven van Watermeulen, can hardly keep their hands off each other during her opening aria; and the longing she sings of in 'Traurigkeit' here takes on a very different meaning. Yet even in the final vaudeville, exchanged glances with the Pasha suggest an undertow of regret for romantic passion and exotic adventure sacrificed in the cause of duty.
While there are irritating details in Simons's modern-dress production, it is psychologically credible, often compelling. Laura Aikin vividly portrays Konstanze's fluctuating emotions in dialogue and aria. If 'Traurigkeit' ideally needs a softer, more plangent colour, she makes 'Martern aller Arten' a graphic embodiment of her conflicting feelings of desire and guilt, charging the stratospheric coloratura with a sense of neurotic desperation.
In Simons's conception Belmonte is an anxious, self-absorbed ditherer, understandably fazed by Konstanze's initial coolness towards him. Wearing a more-or-less permanently bemused air, Edgaras Montvidas sings his four arias with firm, sappy tone, if no special grace of phrasing.
Michael Smallwood makes a likeable, resourceful Pedrillo, cheerfully enduring Osmin's sadistic hair-pulling and nose-tweaking; and Mojca Erdmann, clad in mini-skirt and high-heeled patent leather boots, is a delightful, thoroughly selfassured Blonde, impatient with Konstanze's soulsearching, and using her sexual power to reduce Kurt Rydl's formidable, orotund Osmin to a doeeyed baby. In keeping with the whole production, comic gags are largely eschewed. Constantinos Carydis conducts the excellent Netherlands CO with zest and a fair sense of period style. While many will prefer a more comically straightforward staging, Simons's production certainly makes you think afresh about Mozart's ostensibly innocent, happily-ever-after harem Singspiel.

May 2009

Other productions have suggested a mutual attraction between the heroine and her oriental captor. Simons carries this to extremes. His staging is dominated by Konstanze's inner struggle between her loyalty to her betrothed and her disturbing feelings for the man who, we sense, has awakened her sexually. While there are irritating details in Simon's modern-dress production, I found it psychologically credible, often compelling. Laura Aikin vividly portrays Konstanze's fluctuating emotions in dialogue and aria. ...she makes "Marten aller Arten" a graphic embodiment of her conflicting feelings of desire and guilt, charging the stratospheric coloratura with a sense of neurotic desperation. Constantinos Carydis conducts the excellent Netherlands CO with zest and a fair sense of period style.

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Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, K384

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