Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail | Ruiten, Peter - Mehta, Strehler (La Scala 2017-MULTISUB)

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Librettist: Christoph Friedrich Bretzner, revised by Gottlieb Stephanie, Jr.
Premiere: 16 July 1782, Vienna (Burgtheater)
Language: German
Subtitles: German, English, Italian, French, Russian, Spanish
(Click on CC for the subtitles)
Synopsis: https://www.opera-arias.com/mozart/die-entf%C3%BChrung-aus-dem-serail/synopsis/

Cast & Characters:
Lenneke Ruiten: Konstanze, betrothed to Belmonte:
Mauro Peter: Belmonte, a Spanish nobleman
Sabine Devielhe: Blonde, Konstanze's English maid
Maximilian Schmitt: Pedrillo, Belmonte's servant
Tоbias Kexrer: Osmin, overseer for the Pasha
Cornelius Obonya: Bassa Selim, the Pasha (spoken role)
Marco Merlini: Mute Servant

Teatro alla Scala Orchestra & Chorus
Conductor: Zubin Mehta
Stage Director: Giorgio Strehler
Stage Designer: Luciano Damiani

Die Entführung aus dem Serail (K. 384; The Abduction from the Seraglio; also known as Il Seraglio) is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's Belmont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio of the Pasha Selim.

The work premiered on 16 July 1782 at the Vienna Burgtheater, with the composer conducting.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail is in the genre of "Singspiel", thus the music lacks recitatives and consists entirely of set numbers. The company that first sponsored the opera was the Nationalsingspiel ("national Singspiel"), a pet project (1778–1783) of the Austrian emperor Joseph II. The Emperor had set up the company to perform works in the German language (as opposed to the Italian opera style widely popular in Vienna). This project was ultimately given up as a failure, but along the way it produced a number of successes, mostly a series of translated works. Mozart's opera emerged as its outstanding original success.