Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Bayerischer Staatsoper, Munich, 1980 (Part 2: It Must Never Excite Disgust)

(This is actually the quartet at the end of Act 3)

I’d forgotten how much beautiful music there is in this opera. My current favorite is the quartet at the end of Act 2. The nobles and servants each get slightly different styles of music, although when the men beg forgiveness, Pedrillo takes his cues from Belmonte, and echos his entreaties. This scene could be the basis for a whole opera, and the conflict is over pretty fast. But I don’t thing Mozart meant us to take this story very seriously.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail – Bayerischer Staatsoper, Munich, 1980 (Part 1: Time to Get Down On Your Knees!)

The booklet with this DVD of Die Entführung aus dem Serail contains liner notes from 1980 that defend the idea of opera on film. Nowadays, we take it for granted—film or video being medium through which most of us get to experience more “live” opera than we otherwise would. I appreciated the 1980s camera work, which captured the live experience well. I noticed when fast-forwarding that there are not a lot of edits, or different camera angles. The camera lingers so that you really do get a sense of watching a staged production.

A Tale of Two (or Three) Zerbinetti

Classic Zerbinetta

Reri Grist at Salzburg, 1965

Karl Böhm

21st Century Regie Zerbinetta

Elena Moşuc at Zürich, 2006

Christoph von Dohnányi

Malibu Zerbi

Natalie Dessay in Paris, 2003

Michel Plasson