Gratuitous Friday – Thomas Ebenstein on "Open Mike Night"

From the Jedermann Bühne (Everyman Stage – kind of an “open mike in the plaza”) in Salzburg, Thomas Ebenstein sings Pedrillo's lovely little ballad from Act 3 of Die Entführung aus dem Serail: Im Mohrenland gefangen war. (The guitarist is not awesome, but then again, he’s not why I posted this clip, is he?) This was recorded this past summer, before the Hangar 7 TV production of Die Entführung.

Servus.TV präsentiert 

Thomas Ebenstein auf die Salzburger Jedermann Bühne

Die Entfürhung aus Hangar 7 – The Review

From the folks who brought you La Traviata in the Zurich Hauptbahnhof, this Servus TV production, which is part of this summer's Salzberger Festpielen, is novel and pleasant. But ultimately, it’s more of a spectacle than a drama-with-music. 

Clearly, from an acoustic standpoint, an airplane hangar is a less-than-optimal setting for the singers, and ensemble work is occasionally dodgy. On the other hand, given the obstacles, the singers do remarkably well. Of course, such flaws are part of the excitement of live performance. The acting and singing range from OK to quite good and the visuals are almost always fun, fascinating, or at least interesting. All that is to say it’s a fun cool experiment, and if it gets more people even superficially interested in opera, then job well done.

Abduction from Hangar 7 – Salzburger Festspiele Fernsehproduktion

On August 26, Hangar-7 at the Salzburg Airport was transformed into an event location resounding with culture, when Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, produced especially for TV viewers in co-production with ServusTV, was broadcast live from there. 

I just found this copy of the broadcast. Watch it before it disappears. We'll chat about it later.

(Updates 9/9/2013: 1. Rebecca Nelsen is Blonde in this production. 2. You can see a much higher quality video at the Servus TV website.)