The Abduction from the Seraglio

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Chicago Tribune review:
Abduction' skips the lighter side
Chicago Opera Theater leaves much of the laughter out of its Mozart offering
by John von Rhein
May 4, 2006

A Muslim ruler forced into exile by his European enemy abducts a Spanish lady and her maid only to learn the power of forgiveness by the final curtain. His act of noble renunciation at the climax could be taken as an eloquent plea for better Western/Islamic relations.

You want topical? Mozart's 1782 opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio" delivers more than a few timely messages to our troubled world.

Justin Way's new production for Chicago Opera Theater touches on this topicality, updating the action to around 1914 when the Ottoman Empire was gasping its last and class divisions still meant something. His staging largely ignores the laughter in Mozart's miraculous music to focus on the darker aspects of the singspiel, with its stretches of German dialogue alternating with some of the composer's most glorious if vocally demanding arias. This "Entführung aus dem Serail" is not exactly a barrel of laughs...