Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail
Gramophone Choice
Christine Schäfer (sop) Konstanze Patricia Petibon (sop) Blonde Ian Bostridge (ten) Belmonte Iain Paton (ten) Pedrillo Alan Ewing (bass) Osmin Jürg Löw (spkr) Pasha Selim Les Arts Florissants / William Christie
Erato 3984 25490-2 (127' · DDD · T/t) Buy from Amazon
Reviewing the Strasbourg production on which this recording is based, Opera’s Andrew Clark commented that Christie sets ‘brisk but flexible tempi, and builds the ensembles into a fever of musical jubilation’. That is all amply confirmed in this finely balanced, intimate recording. In the Overture and some of the early numbers, Christie is inclined to clip his rhythms with almost brusque accents, but once the Pasha and Konstanze appear on the scene, he settles into an interpretation that evinces the elevated sensibility that informs his Rameau and Handel on disc, strong on detail but never at the expense of the whole picture.
But then he has by his side a Konstanze to stop all hearts. Having delivered herself of a fleet, easy ‘Ach, ich liebte’, Schäfer (who wasn’t in the original cast) pierces further than does any other interpreter into the soul of the woman who is both physically and emotionally imprisoned. From the deeply felt, vulnerable recitative leading into ‘Traurigkeit’ she pours out Konstanze’s woes in that pure, plaintive, highly individual tone of hers and, above all, offers a wonderfully fresh and inward execution of the text. With Christie going all the way with her, musically speaking, ‘Traurigkeit’ itself is heart-rending in its G minor sorrowing, ‘Martern aller Arten’ the epitome of determined defiance and resolution. Try the final section from ‘Doch du bist entschlossen’ – have you ever heard it sound so resolute, so detailed?
In the great Act 2 Quartet and the last-act duet, where Mozart peers into his musical future, she is just as moving and inspires Bostridge to equal heights of tender inflexion. At first you may find Bostridge lightweight for Belmonte, but in the context of this period-instrument performance, with a small band, his silvery voice and Mozartian know-how carry the day, though his voice sometimes sounds disconcertingly similar to the nimble, ingratiating tenor of the Pedrillo, Iain Paton.
Like her mistress in her role, Petibon gives us a Blonde to make us forget just about every other soprano in the part on disc. She plays with and smiles through her opening aria with a delightful freedom of technique and expression, nothing daunted by its tessitura, even adding decorations to the already-demanding vocal line (the whole recording is literally adorned by small embellishments, naturally delivered). She maintains this high standard throughout in a winning performance.
As Osmin, Ewing’s vibrant, individual bass-baritone is attractive on its own account but, as on the other period-instrument performances, one does rather miss a true bass voice in such a low-lying part, and Ewing proves a benevolent, homely Osmin rather than a threatening one. But, like all the other singers and the keenly spoken Pasha of Löw, he fits easily into the performance’s overall and likeable concept, so I am not inclined to labour this slight drawback.
Christie includes all the recently rediscovered music but opts for a shorter amount of dialogue than many. Its delivery is easy and idiomatic. And the recording is excellent.
DVD / Blu-ray Recommendation
Aikin Konstanze Montvidas Belmonte Rydl Osmin Erdmann Blonde Smallwood Pedrillo van Watermeulen Pasha Selim Netherlands Opera Chor & CO / Carydis
Stage director Simons
Video director Vermeiren
Opus Arte DVD OA1003D; Blu-ray OABD7017D
(3h 34’ · NTSC · 1080i · 16:9 · PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 · 0 · s)
Director Johan Simons’s take on Die Entführung is summed up by a remark in one of the accompanying interviews: ‘At the end people see that the Pasha is a much better match for Konstanze than Belmonte is.’ Other productions have suggested a mutual attraction between the heroine and her oriental captor. Simons carries this to extremes. His staging is dominated by Konstanze’s inner struggle between her loyalty to her betrothed and her disturbing feelings for the man who, we sense, has awakened her sexually. Constantinos Carydis conducts the excellent Netherlands CO with zest and a fair sense of period style. While many will prefer a more comically straightforward staging, Simons’s production certainly makes you think afresh about Mozart’s ostensibly innocent, happily-ever-after harem Singspiel.
