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.

What Did Entführung Ever Do To You?

Reri Grist as Blonde - 1980

My readers know I am a fan of reworking the classics. Many new angles and insights are revealed when we rethink tradition.  Sometimes these Regie-rethinkings are crap; sometimes they tell us something vaguely interesting, and sometimes they can be real eye-openers.  No opera is immune to a regie approach, but some get much more attention than others.

Lately, I've been pondering why Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail gets the regie treatment so often. More importantly, why do directors feel free to add and/or delete spoken text willy nilly?

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