Most people probably have never heard of “The Abduction From the Seraglio,” let alone seen a production of the 1782 opera.
The reason is simple: It’s difficult to stage. So difficult, in fact, that the respected “Viking Opera Guide” declares flatly that there probably never has been a “really satisfactory production” of the comedy.
In 2001, James Robinson set out to change all that. Robinson, who is stage director for Opera Colorado’s “Seraglio,” created a co-production for Houston Grand Opera and five other American companies, including Opera Colorado, that took a fresh, daringly imaginative approach to the comedy.
Because its story involves a clash of East and West, with a Spanish noblewoman captured by Turkish pirates and taken to the harem of Pasha Selim, Robinson decided to move the action to the 1920s and the Orient Express – a literal and symbolic link between the two worlds.
Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer called the Boston Lyric Opera’s 2002 production the company’s best all-around effort since 1996.
Colorado audiences will get a chance to judge for themselves when Opera Colorado presents four performances of its version of the co-production beginning Saturday evening in the Ellie Caulkins
Opera House.
Robinson had never given much thought to the opera, which is known in the original German as “Die Entführing aus dem Serail,” until he got a call from Wolf Trap Opera, a respected summer company in Vienna, Va., asking if he would take a stab at staging it in 1997.
Robinson, who also serves as Opera Colorado’s artistic director, had no illusions about what he was getting himself into there – or later with the more ambitious co-production.
“Before I ever directed it, I remember seeing it and I thought, ‘This is the most boring opera I’ve ever sat through,”‘ he said. “I think it’s just because it’s Mozart before he knew how to really be dramatic.
“The music is not action-oriented. It’s not married to the drama the way ‘(The Marriage of) Figaro’ is or ‘Cosi (fan Tutte)’ or ‘(Don) Giovanni.”‘
Because “Seraglio” is a kind of singspiel, essentially a play with musical numbers connected, in this case, by long, arguably burdensome dialogue, the opera is largely static.
Indeed, its key moment, when Belmonte (tenor Charles Castronovo), a Spanish nobleman, abducts his fiancée, Konstanze (soprano Maria Kanyova), and her servant (soprano Amanda Pabyan) from the harem, strangely occurs with no musical accompaniment and little in the way of a climactic buildup.
Despite these dramatic weaknesses, the work never disappeared from operatic stages. Indeed, in recent years, an increasing number of companies have taken a second look at it.
The reason has everything to do with the composer responsible for it – the inestimable Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was just 25 years old when he started work on this opera.
Even though “Seraglio” does not match the great Mozart operas that were still to come, it is an important transitional work in which he made big strides in shaping characters through music and adapting to the particular talents of his singers.
If he had not yet reached his full potential as a dramatist, Mozart was already a master at writing beautiful music. This opera is filled with memorable moments, including the culminating Act 2 quartet and one of opera’s most celebrated coloratura arias, “Martern
Aller Arten.”
“He took great care with the orchestration – extreme care with this orchestration – and I think it’s as strongly set a text as just about any Mozart opera,” said conductor Scott Terrell, who is making his second Opera Colorado appearance.
It is no coincidence that one of the opera’s main characters, Konstanze (sometimes spelled with a “C”), and Mozart’s wife share the same name. He received the commission for this opera just as he was falling for the woman who would become his spouse.
“Die Entführing” premiered July 16, 1782. Wolfgang and Constanze married three weeks later.
“Both literally and figuratively, her hand is in this groundbreaking score; and his heart, his strength of feeling for her, is in every bar of it,” wrote Mozart biographer Jane Glover.
To highlight the music and make this theatrically troublesome opera appealing to contemporary audiences, Robinson has cut much of the dialogue, focused on the work’s 21 musical sections and injected as many dramatic touches as possible.
At the same time, he shifted the setting to the famed Orient Express, with the scenery consisting of three impeccably realistic train cars created by Allen Moyer and “Great Gatsby”-like costumes by Anna Oliver.
“People say, ‘Oh, isn’t it just a gimmick?”‘ Robinson said. “Well, no, it’s not a just gimmick. When you think about the Eastern world and Western world being connected by railroad tracks, there’s something kind of interesting there.
“It just seemed to make sense.”
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
“The Abduction From the Seraglio”
OPERA COLORADO|Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Tuesday and May 5, and 2 p.m. May 7| $22-$157 |303-357-2787 or operacolorado.org.
