The Abduction from the Seraglio

Hilarious hijinx are all aboard the Orient Express in a James Robinson staging called "a winner" by The Washington Post. Belmonte and his servant Pedrillo set out to rescue their lovers, Konstanze and Blonde, who are held hostage on a train bound from Istanbul to Paris. Mozart's comic genius shines throughout this vaudeville from the Age of the Enlightenment, last seen on The Minnesota Opera stage in 1979. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Altenbach, joins The Minnesota Opera for this glamorous ride.

Run time is two hours and forty-five minutes, including two intermissions.

To get a sneak preview, click here.

Season Tickets

3 opera packages still available!  Click here to purchase a subscription today.

Parking Information

Parking is available up to 48 hours prior to each performance. To purchase, click here and select the Pre-Paid Parking menu item on the left. 

Sunday Matinee Brunches

The Minnesota Opera is partnering with M Street Cafe at the Saint Paul Hotel for brunch. Click here for more information.

Dates + Performances

ACT I

Konstanze, Blonde (her English maid) and Pedrillo, the valet of her fiancé Belmonte, have been taken captive by pirates and sold to Pasha Selim. After searching for months, Belmonte has learned they are being held captive inside the pasha's private cars aboard the Orient Express, which is ready to depart from Istanbul for Paris. Belmonte finds Osmin, the overseer of the pasha's seraglio, and inquires after Pedrillo. Osmin becomes enraged, as Pedrillo is a rival for Blonde's affections, and enjoys special treatment from the pasha. When Pedrillo approaches and tries to make peace, Osmin can barely disguise his contempt.

Though Selim has selected Konstanze as his favorite of the harem, Belmonte is reassured to learn that she is alive and still loves him. As they plan their escape, Pedrillo suggests that Belmonte pose as an architect (one of the pasha's favorite interests) but urges caution as Selim's watchdog, Osmin, is ever on the alert.

As the crowd at the train station cheers their ruler, Pasha Selim enters with Konstanze. Rather than force her love, he hopes she will come to him of her own free will, but Konstanze refuses to forget Belmonte. Selim finds her steadfast loyalty all the more alluring. After Konstanze leaves, Pedrillo presents Belmonte as an architect, and Selim agrees to accept his services, though Osmin distrusts the foreigner.    

ACT II

Later that evening, Blonde scolds Osmin for his rude behavior as she contrasts the treatment of Turkish and European girls. Her  independent streak both frustrates and attracts Osmin, but he is well aware of her already close relationship with Pedrillo. Osmin and Blonde spar until he angrily hurries out.

Konstanze is overcome by sadness. Selim enters to woo her one more time, but with no luck. Though Konstanze has come to appreciate his finer qualities, she remains true to Belmonte even under the threat of torture.

To facilitate their escape, Pedrillo plans to drug Osmin that evening. Though Osmin’s religion forbids liquor (and he naturally distrusts his rival), Pedrillo nonetheless convinces him to drink the (tainted) wine. The ruse works, and Osmin becomes incapacitated. Belmonte is joyfully reunited with Konstanze, and though both he and Pedrillo momentarily suspect their lovers may have been untrue, they are soon reassured of the women’s devotion.

ACT III

All parties nervously prepare for their getaway. Pedrillo signals them with a song, but by the time Blonde and Konstanze belatedly arrive, Osmin has awakened. He sounds the alarm, and both couples are taken into custody. Osmin informs Selim of their treachery and delights in the prospect of punishing his adversaries, even when bribed by Belmonte for their release.

Afraid of what might happen, Belmonte and Konstanze agree to die together, should that be the pasha's sentence. Likewise, Pedrillo and Blonde are afraid of Osmin's wrath. The four are brought before Selim who discovers Belmonte's true identity. To their surprise, Selim reveals that he was once the enemy of Belmonte's father, who banished the pasha from Spain. Yet rather than take revenge on his enemy by punishing Belmonte and company, Pasha Selim shows mercy, having realized that love cannot be coerced and frees them all, to Osmin's outrage.    

The Cast

Townspeople, guards, train station employees

Setting 

Andrew Altenbach (conductor)

Noted for his "vividly colorful" and "first rate" performances, Andrew Altenbach has gained acclaim as a conductor of operatic and symphonic literature as well as a collaborative pianist. He now serves as the Resident Conductor of the Minnesota Opera and will music direct Die Entführung aus dem Serail this season with The St Paul Chamber Orchestra in the pit. He recently guest conducted with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and will conduct the St. Cloud Symphony in February as well as a concert with the Musical Offering Chamber Music Series this October. Mr. Altenbach recently returned from his first summer at the Santa Fe Opera. He served on the music staff there as assistant to the principal conductor, Edo de Waart, for Billy Budd, and as a pianist for Falstaff and Radamisto.

Mr. Altenbach studied with Victor Yampolsky and Alan Chow at Northwestern University. He also served as music director for the North Shore Chamber Orchestra and assistant conductor to the Evanston Symphony. Mr. Altenbach later went to Indiana University, where he studied with David Effron and Karen Shaw and was an associate conductor and coach for the opera program.

Mr. Altenbach has conducted at the Milwaukee Opera Theatre, Music Academy of the West Vocal Program, Indiana University Opera Theatre and Opera on the James. He has been an assistant conductor at the Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera and the Cincinnati Opera. In the fall of 2007, Mr. Altenbach became the associate conductor of the esteemed Minnesota Opera where he assisted all guest conductors and conducted a performance of Gounod's Romeo and Juliet to rave reviews.

Equally at home in the symphonic repertoire, Mr. Altenbach has conducted at the prestigious Chautauqua Institution, the Bloomington Symphony, Brevard Music Center and Indiana University. In the Twin Cities, he conducts the Chamber Players of St. Paul.

Mr. Altenbach has assisted Edo de Waart, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Harry Bicket, Ari Pelto, Giovanni Reggioli, David Effron, Stefan Lano, Richard Buckley and Timothy Muffitt.

He now resides in the Twin Cities with his wife, Julia.

Jennifer Casey Cabot (Konstanze)

In a stellar career which grows in magnitude with every role, soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot continues to garner rave reviews from both audiences and critics alike. Following recent performances as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail the Washington Post writes, "Cabot's singing merged pathos and focus with a gleaming top range" and Opera News praised "her full, silky soprano," calling it "tender" and "startlingly defiant."

In 2008–2009 Jennifer Casey Cabot returns to both the Metropolitan Opera roster and to San Diego Opera as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, and debuts with Minnesota Opera as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. In the 2007–2008 season, Jennifer Casey Cabot joins the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for their production of Le nozze di Figaro and returns to the National Symphony Orchestra as soloist in Messiah. She also appears in a recital for Yale University at Carnegie's Weill Hall featuring music by Charles Ives. Her 2006–2007 season included performances of Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Florida Grand Opera, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at Boston Lyric Opera and Violetta in La traviata in a return to Central City Opera.

Ms. Cabot's career highlights include performances of well known Mozart, Puccini and Verdi heroines on leading stages throughout the country. Before returning to Boston Lyric Opera last season as the Countess, she appeared with the company as both Konstanze and as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. She has performed the roles of Konstanze, Countess, Violetta, and Don Giovanni's Donna Elvira at the Washington National Opera and, following her debut at New York City Opera as Donna Elvira, she returned to NYCO to perform Violetta and the role of Musetta in La bohème. She has also joined San Diego Opera to portray Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, and the role of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, also performing the latter two roles with Arizona Opera.

Other operatic credits include the roles of Mimi in La bohème and Leila in Les pêcheurs de perles with Calgary Opera, the title roles in Manon with Piedmont Opera and Susannah with Kentucky Opera, Alma in Hoiby's Summer and Smoke with Central City Opera and the role of Margaret Elliot in the world premiere of Willa Cather's Eric Hermannson's Soul with Opera Omaha. She has performed the role of Violetta at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Opera Company of North Carolina, and the Utah Festival Opera and made her debut with Vancouver Opera in the role of Fiordiligi.

Ms. Cabot's concert reper toire includes performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Mahler's Symphonies No. 4 and No. 8, and Mozart's Exsultate, Jubilate, among others. Recently, Ms. Cabot performed the role of Konstanze in a concert version of Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the National Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. Ms. Cabot has performed in concert with the Megaron Orchestra at the Athens Concert Hall as First Lady in Die Zauberflöte under Sir Neville Marriner, the Masterwork Chorale in Mozart's Mass in C Minor and has appeared in a New Years' Eve gala concert and an all-Mozart program with the Saint Louis Symphony. She has also sung Strauss's Four Last Songs and Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras, both with the Norwalk Symphony.

In Europe, Ms. Cabot was a resident soloist at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Staatstheater Braunschweig, as well as a guest artist in Bern and at Dresden Semperoper. She recently returned to Germany for a concert of arias and duets with Plácido Domingo, the success of which led to a gala concert with Mr. Domingo in Japan.

A New York native, Ms. Casey Cabot studies with Doris Yarick-Cross. She holds both Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Oberlin College, as well as a master's degree from the Yale School of Music. 

Octavio Cardenas (assistant director)

Octavio Cardenas joins The Minnesota Opera's Resident Artist Program after having served as assistant director for productions of Così fan tutte and La traviata for Chautauqua Opera and Die Fledermaus at Austin Lyric Opera. He has also directed productions of Plump Jack, The Impresario, The Elixir of Love and Street Scene and assisted on The Turn of the Screw and La chute de la maison Uscher for Butler Opera Center. Other directing credits include The Elixir of Love for Guadalajara Opera, Beyond Therapy for Los Angeles' Little Theater and Odd Couple for UCLA.

Mr. Cardenas is also a talented singer and actor, having performed in the films ‘Til parole do us part, Bottom Feeders and Gemini Friday; in the plays Beaux Stratagem (Scrub), Fashion (Mr. Twinkle), Summertime (Edmund), Orestes 2.0 (Forensic/Phrygian), Dream Play (the Lawyer), 4 a.m. (Doc) and Butterfly Kiss (Ross Sloan); and having sung the roles of Strephon in Iolanthe for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Shreveport, Sciarrone in Tosca for Shreveport Opera, Marquese d'Orbigny in La traviata and Cascada in The Merry Widow for Guadalajara Opera and Vuzzachio in L'infedelta fedele and Beto in Gianni Schicchi for USC Opera. Mr. Cardenas holds a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the Centenary College of Louisiana, a Master of Fine Arts in acting from UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and is the recent recipient of a DMA in opera directing from the University of Texas at Austin.

Michael Colvin (Belmonte)

Hailed  in Opera News as "one of the most beautiful young lyric tenor instruments around" and "a perfect model of the 'bel canto' style of singing" (Sun Newspaper), Irish-Canadian tenor Michael Colvin has appeared to critical acclaim on opera and concert stages throughout Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. A specialist in works by Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti and Britten, Michael has worked with some of the world's best known conductors including Helmut Rilling, Nicholas McGegan, Harry Bicket, Paul Daniel, Jane Glover, Trevor Pinnock, David Parry, Bramwell Tovey, Richard Bradshaw and Pinchas Zuckerman and opera directors including David Alden, Tim Albery, James Robinson, Leon Major and the late Colin Graham.

Michael's 2008–2009 season features an exciting mix of debuts and important return engagements including his Minnesota Opera debut as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and a return to English National Opera as Bob Boles in David Alden's new production of Peter Grimes conducted by Edward Gardner. Concert highlights this season include Mozart's Requiem with Pinchas Zuckerman and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Kingston Symphony, Messiah with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Niagara, Haydn's Creation with the Rochester Philharmonic, Vivaldi's Dixit Dominus for the National Ballet of Canada and a song recital with Toronto's Aldeburgh Connection.

Recent operatic roles include Ferrando in Così fan tutte for Canadian Opera Company, Ramiro in La Cenerentola for Portland Opera, Don Ottavio for Chicago Opera Theater, Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor for the English National Opera and his critically acclaimed UK opera debut as Rodrigo di Dhu in La Donna del Lago for Garsington Opera. Other engagements include Almaviva in The Barber of Seville for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Belfiore in Il viaggio a Reims, The Rape of Lucretia and Semele for Chicago Opera Theater, Canadian Opera Company's Rodelinda conducted by Harry Bicket, his role debut as Argirio opposite Ewa Podles in the Canadian Opera Company's Tancredi, the Shepherd in Oedipus Rex for the Edinburgh International Festival, Belfiore in Il viaggio a Reims for Portland Opera, Tamino in The Magic Flute for Manitoba Opera and L'Italiana in Algeri with Opera Festival of New Jersey. For the COC he has sung in L'italiana in Algeri, Il viaggio a Reims, Don Giovanni and The Barber of Seville. Other credits include a big-screen debut as Don Ottavio in the internationally acclaimed film Don Giovanni Unmasked alongside baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky and recordings on the NAXOS, CBC and Warner Music labels.

On the concert platform Michael has sung Mozart's Requiem for Chicago's Grant Park Festival, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and National Arts Centre Orchestra, Handel's Messiah and Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium with Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra/Glover, National Arts Centre Orchestra/Pinnock and Rochester Philharmonic, Schubert's Mass in A-flat with Helmut Rilling and Festival Vancouver, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, l'Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Elora Festival and Festival de Lanuadière, Haydn's Die Schöpfung, Verdi's Requiem and Elgar's Dream of Gerontius for the Elora Festival, Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings with Richard Bradshaw and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Dvorak's Stabat mater with Andrey Boreyko and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge, Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde for the National Ballet of Canada. Recital highlights include Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer for CBC Radio, Schubert's Die Schöne Mullerin at Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio as well as regular appearances with Toronto's Aldeburgh Connection and Off Centre Music Salon.

Born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland and raised in Toronto, Canada, Michael was trained at the Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio, the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England and Canadafs Banff Centre for the Arts. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, most notably the Canadian Opera Foundation Award and a Chalmers Performing Arts Award.

Jeffrey Halili (Pedrillo)

Filipino-Canadian tenor Jeffrey Halili has just made his debut as Bardolfo in New York City Opera's revival of Falstaff. He performed Nick in La fanciulla del West at the St. Bart's Music Festival with Maestro Stephen Mercurio this winter. The year 2007 featured debuts with Michigan Opera Theatre, New Orleans Opera and a return to Virginia Opera as Nerone in Agrippina with a "high-wire intensity of his vocal and physical skills." Mr Halili has performed Harry in La fanciulla del West with Florida Grand Opera and a "highly energized and graceful" Gastone in La traviata with Virginia Opera. Displaying his versatility, he also sang his first Duke in Rigoletto with the Dubuque Symphony. He has attended several notable summer programs including those at Santa Fe Opera and Chautauqua Opera where he gave "first rate performances" as Goro in Madama Butterfly, Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Giles Corey in The Crucible. At Santa Fe Opera he performed Ajax in La belle Hélène alongside Susan Graham. In concert, he has performed with Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. His repertoire includes Uriel in The Creation, Handel's Messiah, Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light and Arthur Honegger's oratorio King David.

He is recently a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts where he performed numerous roles in operas including Rigoletto, La Navarrise, Iolanta, Così fan tutte, Elektra, L'amico Fritz, Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte and Lucia di Lammermoor. "(Hurling) himself across the stage with demonic energy" in AVA'a production of Das Rheingold, "the clever fire god Loge furnished tenor Jeffrey Halili with an excellent vehicle for his gifts; his dynamic characterization, deft verbal pointing and legato flow gave consistant pleasure"

Mr. Halili recently received an encouragement grant from the 2007 Sullivan Foundation and second prize at the 2008 Liederkranz Competition. He also was a first place winner and Audience Choice of the 2004 AVA Giargiari Bel Canto Competition and a 2006 Metropolitan Opera Competition New York Regional Finalist. He received his Master's degree in Vocal Performance from Indiana University and his Bachelor's in Vocal Performance from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Upcoming engagements this season take Mr. Halili to Hawaii Opera Theatre and The Minnesota Opera as Pedrillo in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail and to Miami as Goro in Florida Grand Opera's new Butterfly. 

Wendall K. Harrington (projections designer)

Wendall Harrington received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and American Theatre Wing awards for her design of The Who's Tommy. Her Broadway credits include Grey Gardens, The Good Body, Vincent in Brixton, Amy's View, Putting It Together, The Capeman, Ragtime, John Leguizamo's Freak, Company, Racing Demon, Four Baboons Adoring The Sun, The Will Rogers Follies, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only and They're Playing Our Song. Opera credits include The Grapes of Wrath and Transatlantic for The Minnesota Opera, Nixon in China for Opera Theatre of St. Louis and A View from the Bridge at Metropolitan Opera; The Juniper Tree at ART; The Photographer at BAM; The Magic Flute in Florence; and Orfeo in Vienna. Ballet credits include The Nutcracker for San Francisco Ballet, Othello for ABT, Ballet mécanique and Deconstructing English for Doug Varone; and Anna Karenina for the Royal Danish Ballet. Off-Broadway and regional credits include The Investigation, Hapgood, As Thousands Cheer, Night and Her Stars, Merrily We Roll Along (three times) and the ill-fated Whistle Down the Wind. Concert: Stop Making Sense (Talking Heads), Old Friends (Simon and Garfunkel), No Apologies (Chris Rock) and John Fogerty's Déjà Vu Tour, as well as William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience with VocalEssense. Ms. Harrington is the former design director of Esquire Magazine and created player introductions for the New York Knicks, Liberty and Rangers and has two fine daughters. She designed and directed the premiere of Snapshots with the Elements Quartet and Arjuna's Dilemma, a new opera based on the Bhagavad Gita. She teaches Projection Design at the Yale School of Drama.

Ben Johnson (Pasha Selim)

Tenor Ben Johnson returns to The Minnesota Opera, having sung Benvolio in Roméo et Juliette last season, roles in The Grapes of Wrath and Orazi e Curiazi, Count Ludovic in Passion in 2004, Roderigo in Otello and the Official Registrar in Madama Butterfly. He was recently featured in the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and also sang Marius in Les Miserables for Chanhassen Theaters. Mr. Johnson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota – Duluth where he was seen in productions ofDie Fledermaus as Alfred and Damn Yankees as Joe Hardy, and in scenes from Candide (title role), The Abduction from the Seraglio (Belmonte) andThe Magic Flute (Tamino). He also attended the Bay View Music Conservatory and performed in the Bay View Music Festival’s productions of Into The Woodsas the Baker and West Side Story in the role of Tony. Mr. Johnson is a Regional American College Theater Festival finalist and a Schubert Club finalist in graduate voice.

Kathleen Kim (Blonde)

Opera News calls her "spectacular," the Chicago Sun-Times "a revelation" and "tiny dynamo" and the Chicago Tribune's John von Rhein adds that Kathleen Kim "nailed her stratospheric coloratura aria with a precise, penetrating soprano." Such are the accolades bestowed on this young Korean American coloratura soprano that important opera houses are taking notice. During the 2007–2008 season Ms. Kim made her Metropolitan opera debut as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, to be followed by Oscar in Un ballo in maschera and Marie (cover) in La fille du Régiment.

In the 2008–2009 season, Ms. Kim will make her debut with Minnesota opera as Blonde in The Abduction form the Seraglio. And she will return to the Metropolitan opera as Papagena in The Magic Flute and as First Wood Sprite in Rusalka. Also Ms. Kim will make her European debut with Bilbao Opera in Spain as Marie in La fille du régiment.

Kathleen Kim made her Mexico debut as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte with the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra during Carlos Miguel Prieto's final performance as music director with that orchestra in the summer of 2007.

A recent graduate of the Ryan Opera Center of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Kim appeared during her apprenticeship with Lyric as Adele in Die Fledermaus, the First Priestess in Iphigénie en Tauride, Page in Rigoletto, Milliner in Der Rosenkavalier and Frasquita in Carmen for student matinees.

In 2006, Kim made her debut with the Chicago Opera Theatre as Madame Mao Tse-tung in Nixon in China for which she garnered rave reviews. Her other operatic roles include the Queen of the Night and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, the Dew Fairy and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel and Susanna and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro for such houses as Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, Sarasota Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Ridgefield Opera in Connecticut, and Opera Eurydice in New York.

In the summer of 2004, Kim attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara under the direction of Marilyn Horne, where she received the Encouragement Award at the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition. A year earlier, she was a soprano soloist for the National Chorale's Annual Sing-In concert at New York's Avery Fisher Hall.

Kathleen Kim has won numerous prizes and awards, including the 2006 Sullivan Foundation Awards, Sarasota Opera Guild's Leo Rogers Scholarship and the Rose Ann Grundman Scholarship of the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation voice competition in Chicago. She was also the third-prize winner of the Mario Lanza Competition, a National Finalist of the MacAllister Awards, and a prize winner of the Liederkranz Competition.

Ms. Kim received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Manhattan School of Music.

Allen Moyer (set designer)

Broadway: Thurgood; Grey Gardens (Tony Nomination); Little Dog Laughed; The Constant Wife; Twelve Angry Men (also current National Tour); In My Life; Reckless; The Man Who Had All the Luck; A Thousand Clowns. Off-Broadway: From Up Here; The New Century; Grey Gardens (Drama Desk Nomination); Mr. Marmalade; Landscape of the Body; A Few Stout Individuals; Lobby Hero; Entertaining Mr. Sloane; The Dazzle; This Is Our Youth; Well; As Bees in Honey Drown. Opera: Orfeo ed Euridice at the Metropolitan Opera; La bohème, Il trittico, The Mother of Us All; Don Pasquale and Il viaggio a Reims at New York City Opera; The Grapes of Wrath [The Minnesota Opera (world premiere)]; The Abduction from the Seraglio at Houston Grand Opera; The Elixir of Love at Opera Colorado; Lucia di Lammermoor at Theater St. Gallen, Falstaff, Agrippina, Daphne and Così fan tutte at Santa Fe Opera; Orfeo at Glimmerglass; Nixon in China at Cincinnati Opera; and The Marriage of Figaro, Radamisto, Miss Havisham's Fire, Lucia di Lammermoor and I puritani at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Additional work at Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera and Scottish Opera. Ballet/Dance: Romeo and Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Bard Summerfest and the Barbican Center and Sylvia with Mark Morris for the San Francisco Ballet. Awards: 2006 Obie for Sustained Excellence in Set Design.

Upcoming projects include The Count of Monte Cristo at Theater St. Gallen, The Ghosts of Versailles at Opera Theater of St. Louis and Il trittico for San Francisco Opera.

Anna R. Oliver (costume designer)

Opera: Turandot (The Minnesota Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Dallas Opera, Portland Opera, Opera Colorado and others); The Abduction from The Seraglio (Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Opera, Opera Pacific, Kansas Opera; The Minnesota Opera); Il viaggio a Reims (Canadian Opera Co., New York City Opera); Hansel and Gretel (New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera); Norma (San Francisco Opera, Opera Colorado, Canadian Opera Co.); Journey Beyond the West (B.A.M.); Orphée et Eurydice (Opera Colorado); The Magic Flute (San Jose Opera); Mitridate, re di Ponto; La cambiale di matrimonio, L'Occasione fa il lardo, Così fan tutte, Giulio Cesare, La Cenerentola (Wolftrap Opera); Elegy for Young Lovers (Juilliard School); Rigoletto, The Postman Always Rings Twice (Boston Lyric Opera); I pagliacci (Skylight Opera); Iphigenie en Tauride, Miss Julie, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Two Widows (Manhattan School of Music)  Stage: The Women, Romeo and Juliet, Misalliance, As You Like It  (The Old Globe); Man and Superman, Nicholas Nickleby, The Taming of the Shrew (California Shakespeare); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Arizona Theater Co. and San Jose Rep.); Iphigenia at Aulis, Major Barbara (San Jose Repertory); Heart Break House, Pillow man, The Magic Fire (Berkeley Repertory, The Globe); Don Juan (The Shakespeare Theatre, D.C., Old Globe, Seattle Repertory, The McCarter); Restoration Comedy, The Beard of Avon (Seattle Repertory); Fraulein Else (Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, The Long Wharf, The McCarter); The Constant Wife (Seattle Rep, American Conservatory Theatre.) The House of Mirth, The Guardsman (American Conservatory Theatre); Macbeth (Acting Co.); Trojan Women, Saint Joan, Hedda Gabler, Nora, The Glass Menagerie, Candida, Ghosts, Dear Master (Aurora Theatre Co.); Twelfth Night (Dallas Theatre Center)  Awards: 2006 Helen Hayes Award nomination: Best Costumes for Don Juan, Shakespeare Theatre, D.C.  Upcoming: The Devil's Disciple (Aurora Theatre Co.); The Lieutenant of Inishmore (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)  Education: California College of Arts and Crafts, B.F.A. Drawing; Yale School of Drama, M.F.A. Theatre Design.

Paul Palazzo (lighting designer)

Paul Palazzo is happy to return to The Minnesota Opera. His opera credits include L'elisir d'amore, La bohème, Giulio Cesare (Opera Colorado); Don Pasquale, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Houston Grand Opera); Hansel and Gretel (Los Angeles Opera); Eugene Onegin, Rigoletto (Boston Lyric Opera); Beatrice and Benedict (Manhattan School of Music); Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte (Wolf Trap Opera Company); Pagliacci/Carmina burana (Portland Opera); Nixon in China, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il trovatore, Tosca (The Minnesota Opera); Nabucco (Dallas Opera); Der Rosenkavalier (Seattle Opera); and La fanciulla del West (Utah Opera). Mr. Palazzo was recently represented on Broadway with the Roundabout Theatre's production of Twelve Angry Men, directed by Scott Ellis. His corporate clients include IBM, SAP, and SONY Electronics. 

Elise Sandell (stage director)

Elise Sandell made her mainstage directorial debut with Tulsa Opera's production of Carmen in February 2007, which was referred to in Tulsa World as "marvelous entertainment" and "a sublime experience."  

She has worked frequently with Houston Grand Opera, and in November 2007, directed the world premiere performance of Houston Grand Opera's newly commissioned "operatorio" The Refuge composed by Christopher Theofanidis with libretto by Leah Lax. Her debut with HGO was as assistant director on Idomeneo during the 2004–2005 season, and she has returned often, serving as associate director on Olivier Tambosi's new production of Manon Lescaut, and last season assisting Elijah Moshinsky on Simon Boccanegra.  

Elise has also worked frequently with Central City Opera, and in 2008, she returned to direct their apprentice production of Curlew River. In addition to serving as assistant director on several of their productions, she has also been a director for their "Opera à la Carte" scenes program and their production of The Face on the Barroom Floor.  
Elise has worked extensively as an assistant director with such companies as Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Dallas Opera, Utah Symphony and Opera, Central City Opera, San Diego Opera, Portland Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. She has worked with many well-known directors, including Colin Graham, John Copley, Lotfi Mansouri, Paul Curran and Ken Cazan. Elise resides in Portland, Oregon, is a graduate of the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University in St. Louis and has served as an OPERA America Fellow.         

Harold Wilson (Osmin)

North American bass Harold Wilson is quickly establishing himself on both sides of the Atlantic. He has spent the last few seasons as a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. While there he has sung such roles as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Biterolf in Tannhäuser and Roucher in Andrea Chénier. His other European credits include: Aufstieg und Fall des Stadt Mahagonny in Basel, Switzerland, Tannhäuser at the Staatsoper Berlin, Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Oroveso in Norma, Pogner in Meistersinger and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte in Halle, and A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Teatro Liceo in Barcelona (available on DVD from Decca). In the United States he has sung with Palm Beach Opera, Florentine Opera, Opera Carolina, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and covered at the Metropolitan Opera. Already in his young career, he has shared the stage with such stars as Luciano Pavarotti, Salvatore Licitra, Neil Shicoff, Jose Cura, Maria Guleghina, Angela Gheorghiu, Sumi Jo, Violetta Urmana, Juan Pons, Franz Grundheber and Ruggiero Raimondi. Harold received his Master's Degree from the Indiana School of Music where he had the honor to study with the great bass, Giorgio Tozzi. This season, Mr.Wilson will be singing with the Seattle Symphony, Théâtre Capitole in Toulouse, and Santa Fe Opera as well as covering at the Metropolitan Opera.  

The Abduction from the Seraglio

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner (Belmont und Constanze)

adapted and enlarged by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie  

World premiere at the Burgtheater, Vienna

July 16, 1782 

On March 16, 1781, Mozart arrived in Vienna, his home base for the next ten years. It was not his first visit – he had traveled to the Austrian capital on other occasions as a wunderkind, dazzling its Hapsburg rulers with his amazing piano technique. As to his abilities as a composer, the royal sovereigns were a little more skeptical. Empress Maria Theresa had privately communicated to her son Archduke Ferdinand, then governor of the empire's enclave of Lombardy, her doubts over Mozart's ability as a potential kapellmeister. One suspects she had the same conversation with her other son, Leopold, one-time Grand Duke of Tuscany, whom the young Wolfgang had once petitioned – unsuccessfully – for a job. Indeed, some members of the Austrian power structure were so biased against German composers that Leopold's wife, Maria Luisa, would later make a nasty remark following the premiere of La clemenza di Tito, calling it porcheria tedesca – German trash. The Hapsburgs, crucial to the development of 18th-century opera seria, had their hands deep within the peninsula and preferred their composers to be Italian.

But by the time of Mozart's arrival, Maria Theresa was dead, leaving her first son Joseph in charge. The new emperor had an exceptional interest in music and took a personal role in running the court theaters. The now-adult Wolfgang Amadeus thought he could easily expect a position in the vibrant Viennese musical scene, especially after his extremely successful premiere of Idomeneo earlier that year in Munich. There was one problem – the composer was still in the service of Salzburg's prince archbishop, Count Hieronymus Colloredo, and his whole reason for being in the city was to serve his master, who had temporarily transplanted the Salzburg court, responding to his own father's illness. After a lengthy excused absence (with pay) to produce Idomeneo, Mozart was expected to resume his duties and his position in the Colloredo household, where he would be considered slightly higher than the cooks, but below that of the valets. The archbishop relished trotting out his talented virtuoso to enhance his own reputation, but the composer burned at the indignity of having to wait in the antechamber until summoned to perform, a common practice of the day.

When not in the prince's service, Mozart made every attempt to attract the emperor's ear, which was not an easy task. The twice-widowed Joseph rarely held social functions, and musical life in Vienna tended to play out in private homes, often with the emperor in attendance. So Mozart hit the salon circuit in hopes of making a connection, which often conflicted with his paid duties (his contract forbade public performances). As the princely visit was coming to a close, the composer tried to find any excuse to extend his stay in Vienna (again, with pay), but one of the archbishop's footmen set a trap. Rather than employing the expected reason (i.e. collecting fees for lessons and settling his outstanding accounts), the servant argued, why not simply say that he was unable to secure a coach seat, at that time in high demand? When the lie was exposed, a highly irregular shouting match between the brash young man and his royal benefactor quickly ensued. Mozart submitted his resignation several times, but the prince's secretary, Count Arco, remembered Leopold Mozart's many years of service and made every attempt to smooth over the situation. Nonetheless, the count's own rage exploded when he discovered a direct communication to the archbishop detailing the efforts Arco had made on Mozart's behalf, some of which were not entirely in line with courtly protocol. This led to the now-notorious expulsion, punctuated by parting kick-in-the-rear, an ignominy the composer would not soon forget.

Back in Salzburg, Wolfgang's domineering father could not have been pleased as he gradually received this distressing news from Vienna – he was, after all, still in charge of Wolfgang's finances, issuing him an "allowance" as the need arose – and feared penury for both of them (or so he would say). Life in the service of the archbishopric had been good enough for him, one time holding the positions of both fourth violinist and valet. Fueled by slanderous (and often incorrect) letters from his friends in Vienna, Papa Mozart fired off a series of deprecating missives, assailing his son's character. With newly found maturity, the younger Mozart defended his actions, and in spite of his joblessness, still managed to send home a little money, though he made it clear this would not continue indefinitely. Responding to "the voice of nature" as much as genuine affection, he was about to take a wife. Constanze Weber would not have been his father's first choice – in fact he expressed his horror at such a match, for the Weber sisters had a somewhat tattered reputation and were accompanied by a conniving and disagreeable mother. Caecilia Weber insisted on a sort of prenuptial agreement requiring Wolfgang to pay a lifetime indemnity if he failed to go through with the match, a contract Constanze tore up before his very eyes (though there is evidence the whole event may have been staged to enhance the appearance of true affection). As Mozart had craved from the day he left Munich, the filial bonds between a controlling parent and an obedient son were finally broken when he married without his father's consent, which arrived begrudgingly one day after the ceremony.

But where would the young composer find work? Emperor Joseph's permanent music staff was full circa 1781, headed by the Hofmusikgraf Count Franz Xaver Orsini-Rosenberg, Hofkapellmeister Giuseppe Bonno, Hofcompositeur Christoph Willibald Gluck (largely honorary at this point) and Kapellmeister der italienischen Oper Antonio Salieri, but with the resignation or death of any one of them, everyone would move up a notch, and a spot could become available (this wouldn't actually occur until 1788). Still, it wasn't as though Mozart had gone completely unnoticed. For several years, the emperor had been running a German opera company, in part to generate national pride and to defray the expense of Italian singers. Such a notion had been tried before, but without lasting success (as seen in the ill-fortune of Reinhard Keiser's Hamburg Opera House circa King Croesus in the early 18th century). Italian opera seria simply had become too popular in Germany, and composers who wrote in the Italian style, such as Johann Adolf Hasse, Carl Heinrich Graun, Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta all found lucrative commissions or appointments in the numerous German principalities. Though German singspiel would develop into a legitimate art form by the end of the century, its loose early principals often led to absurd and dramatically weak plots, sometimes merely commedia dell'arte skits with musical interludes. Between the demise of the Hamburg Opera (1738) and the end of the Seven Years War (1763), opera sung in German produced only sporadic, unorganized experiments. Unlike France and Italy, Germany lacked a conservatory system that could yield a cohesive style for both composition and performance. Thankfully, the quality of German literature in the plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (also an opera librettist) gave rise to melodrama in the native language. Though ruled by the spoken word, the hybrid genre of melodrama was nonetheless just a heartbeat away from true singspiel. 

Even after the National Theater was established in 1778, 33 out of the 48 operas performed during its short five-year history were simply Italian and French works in German translation [although the august Salieri would be called upon to contribute to the repertoire, producing the "Lustspiel" Der Rauchfangkehrer (The Chimney Sweep) in 1781]. Johann Gottlieb Stephanie ran the theater, and it may have been his past association with Mozart, rather than a direct inquiry from Joseph or Rosenberg-Orsini, that paved the way for a commission. As was the custom, the impresario appropriated an extant libretto, Belmont und Konstanze, that had been written by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner and previously set to music by Johann André for a Berlin premiere. (This was not uncommon –Bretzner's libretto would be set again for a Stuttgart premiere with music by Christian Ludwig Dieter in 1784, among other adaptations.)

Mozart's new opera was intended to be part of the celebrations surrounding a state visit by Russian crown prince Paul Petrovich (son of Catherine the Great) and his wife. As the premiere approached, however, the program began to change, to Mozart's distress. Gluck's health had been waning and it was decided to recognize his lifetime achievements by remounting three of his most popular works: Iphigénie en Tauride (in German translation), Alceste and Orfeo ed Euridice (both in the original Italian – so much for German nationalism). Mozart was instead engaged, as in the past, as a mere performer, providing sideshow entertainment for the assembled royalty. (In one notable incident, Mozart was compelled to compete on the keyboard with Muzio Clementi before the emperor and the Russian crown princess Maria Fedorovna. Joseph wagered on Mozart and won the bet, rewarding the clavier player with a sum equal to half of his Salzburg salary). The Abduction from the Seraglio (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), as the opera was now titled to distance it from its predecessor (Bretzner having accused Mozart of plagiarism), was now programmed later in the season. On the positive side, the extra time gave the composer a leisurely pace to craft his opera, and he and Stephanie made considerable changes to the libretto. Bretzner's four acts were reduced to three, Pedrillo's voice was switched to a tenor while Osmin became a bass, women were added to the chorus and the denouement was adjusted to emphasize Selim's act of Christian mercy by giving him a Spanish-Catholic background (in the original, the pasha countermands his execution order when he learns Belmonte is his own long-lost son).

In the construction of Abduction, Mozart took full advantage of the loose formal requirements of singspiel, which was, in its day, more akin to a Broadway musical than a strict opera seria. Hoping to show off his abilities as a composer of the more distinguished art form, he employs a graver style for the story's somber moments. Konstanze's lengthy aria "Traurigkeit ward mir zum Lose" is preceded by accompanied recitative, as is the duet Konstanze and Belmonte sing when they face death together ("Meinetwegen sollst du sterben!") and Belmonte's love song "O wie ängstlich." Similarly, two others (Belmonte's devotional number "Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke" and Konstanze's testament to constancy "Martern aller Arten") are preceded by extensive introductory orchestral ritornelli, almost taking the form of a concert aria. Mozart was clearly trying prove that German opera could be taken seriously.

"Oriental" themes flourished throughout the 18th century in Vienna, where its residents enjoyed their croissant (literally "crescent," a symbol of the Ottoman Empire) with their Turkish coffee. Several themes typify exotic opera of this era: the comic and the grotesque (revealed by the foreign characters), religious differences, liberty (the lack thereof) and sexual license. The mystery of the harem and fantasies of the seductive odalisque women (whose only purpose were to serve their masters and maintain their beauty) coupled with a violent military history that went back to the Crusades led Europeans to believe the "infidels" were more amorous, indulgent and impulsive than themselves. Imagined exoticism drew a veil between the two cultures – setting our current production on the Orient Express, a "theater on wheels," running from Istanbul (formerly Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire until conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 and situated in both Europe and the Middle East) to Paris provides an apt parallel to another era when European fascination with the "exotic" Orient ran high.

Mozart's opera joined a myriad of Oriental-themed works, which had become even more popular with Viennese audiences as they approached the centenary of the famous siege in 1683 when the Turks bombarded the city gates. Exotic settings and characters can be found throughout Europe as early as 1686 in Johann Wolfgang Franck's Cara Mustapha (to a text by Croesus-librettist Lukas von Bostel) with Muhummeth II (1693) by Keiser, Bajazet (1735) by Antonio Vivaldi, Tamerlano by George Frideric Handel and Solimano (1753) by Hasse to follow. Later in Vienna Gluck's La rencontre imprévue (1763), Grétry's Zémire et Azor (1771) and Giovanni Paisiello's L'arabo cortese (1769) and La Dardané (1772) revisited the "Oriental" theme. Rescue scenarios were still topical and even industry-related; indeed, life imitated art when the entire Maltese opera company was taken captive by Barbary Coast pirates in 1782. Mozart's own incomplete first attempt at exotic singspiel, Zaide (Das Serail), followed this trend, and is the work he had brought to Vienna to show to Stephanie, but it was far too serious. (After his death, his widow Constanze sold it to André's son, a music publisher who completed the 15 existing numbers with his own finale). Hardly the stereotypical barbarian, the "noble Turk" of Zaide would emerge to become a familiar theme as Western military superiority advanced and the Ottoman empire's power began to diminish: Tito librettist Caterino Mazzolà wrote a Un turco in Italia for the 1789 season, and later, Gioachino Rossini would do the same in 1815. With this trendy new attitude, Mozart's Abduction was fashioned to the apex of public taste, complete with (European-born) Pasha Selim's clement act of forgiveness, juxtaposed against Osmin's comically unwavering lack of couth: the perfect expression of Emperor Joseph's enlightened government. 

Like some (but not all) composers of the day, Mozart was careful to include some türkische Musik as well. Though the Eurocentric melodies are hardly authentic, Mozart used a number of techniques to evoke the exoticism of the "Oriental" setting: from the simple tunes of alternating thirds in Osmin's rage-filled music, to Moorish tendencies in Pedrillo's pizzicato troubadour romance "In Mohrenland," the to the quick pace, simple harmony and repeating accompaniment in the duet "Vivat Bacchus." Most prominent, Janissary percussion (cymbals, triangle and bass drum often accented by the piccolo) is employed in the overture, Act I chorus and Act III finale. Other aspects of the "Turkish" style include the use of grace notes, rapid contrasts between major and minor keys, distinctive chromatic intervals, duple meters and a lively tempo (although Mozart made little to no attempt to recreate actual Turkish music). The composer was no stranger to the Near East. In "Mozart in Turkey" (Cambridge Opera Journal, 12, 3, 219-235), Benjamin Perl identifies Turkish idioms in Lucio Silla (1773), the finale of the fifth violin concerto (1779), the alla turca movement in the piano sonata in a major (1783), Monostatos' aria "Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden" from Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute; 1791) and even makes a case for Don Giovanni's aria "Fin ch'han dal vino" (1787), the Don's licentiousness compared to that of a harem-keeping middle-eastern with his underling, Leporello, guardian of its contents (symbolized by the catalogo of conquests). 

Abduction's libretto was developed out of many Orient-themed literary sources, from love and rescue motifs found in Boccaccio's Il Decamerone and Filocolo to Jean-François Marmontel's Contes moraux (1761), Isaac Bickerstaff's The Sultan, or A Peep into the Seraglio (1775) and Charles Dibdin's The Captive (1769). Marmontel's tale focuses on Soliman ii, the mystery of the seraglio and its ruler's eventual preference for the nez à la Roxelane, which belongs to an uppity young harem girl who eventually becomes sultana as she brings forth and softens his emotionalism. The details were also adapted by Frenchman Charles-Simon Favart into an opéra comique libretto in 1761 (from which Mozart borrowed his vaudeville ending) and into the opera Soliman den andra, eller De tre sultaninnorna (1789) by Joseph Martin Kraus. Mozart's student, Franz Xaver Süssmayr would come to write an opera on this subject in 1799 (he also wrote a Synfonia turchesca). Bickerstaff's play and subsequent opera features a tyrannical eunuch by the name of Osmyn and a blonde, British slave girl; and The Captive involves the eventual liberation of Zorayda by the Spaniard Ferdinand (also operatically adapted in La schiava liberata in 1777 with text by Gaetano Martinelli to music by Jommelli). Another more recent discovery is the possible connection to an obscure French play Les époux esclaves ou Bastien et Bastienne à Alger (1755) that includes shipwrecked Spanish lovers, a plot to escape, a Muslim ruler and servant, and a magnanimous ending.

In spite of a convoluted literary heritage, an overwhelming number of arias and an overabundance of notes (at least, according to the motion picture Amadeus), The Abduction from the Seraglio was an instant success with the public, if not the emperor – it became the most frequently performed of Mozart's operas during his lifetime. The second production in Prague set in motion a tradition and affection for his later works in that Bohemian capital evidenced by the later success of Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito. The opera would tour Germany and the rest of Europe to great acclaim. The fate of the National Theater was not so rosy, however, as intrigue festered inside the court. With only three other lasting works to its credit (Ignaz Umlauf's Die Bergknappen and Die pücefarbenen Schuhe and later Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf's Der Apotheker und der Doktor), singspiel fell out of favor. The Italians were soon reinstated, thanks in part to the machinations of the nobility. Untested in the realm of opera buffa, Mozart now found himself in a precarious position, and his next commission for a full-length opera at the Burgtheater would not come for another four years. Yet Abduction would not be the composer's last German opera – he went on to write the one-act Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario; again to text by Stephanie) in 1786 for a command performance (and another contest, this time with Salieri) at Schönbrunn Palace, and Die Zauberflöte for Emanuel Schikaneder's suburban Theater auf der Wieden in the last year of the composer's life. It is interesting to contemplate what Mozart might have contributed to the development of German grand opera, had he lived into the early decades of the 19th century. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

b Salzburg, January 27, 1756; d Vienna, December 5, 1791

Child wonder, virtuoso performer and prolific creative artist, Mozart is the first composer whose operas have never been out of repertory. His prodigious talents were apparent very early in his life; by the age of four he could reproduce on the keyboard a melody played to him, at five he could play the violin with perfect intonation, and at six he composed his first minuet.

A musician himself, Wolfgang's father, Leopold, immediately saw the potential of his son's talents. With the mixed motives of religious piety and making a tidy profit, Leopold embarked on a series of concert tours showing off the child's extraordinary talents. Often playing with his sister Maria Anna ("Nannerl"), herself an accomplished musician, young Wolfgang charmed the royal courts of Europe, from those of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, French king Louis XV and English king George III, to the lesser principalities of Germany and Italy.

As Mozart grew older, his concert tours turned into a search for permanent employment, but this proved exceedingly difficult for a German musician in a market dominated by Italian composers. Although many of his early operas were commissioned by Milanese and Munich nobles (Mitridate, Ascanio in Alba, Lucio Silla, La finta giardiniera), he could not rise beyond of the Salzburg archbishopric. When the new prince archbishop, Count Hieronymus Colloredo, was appoi Konzertmeisternted in 1771, Mozart also found he was released for guest engagements with less frequency. Though his position improved and a generous salary was offered, the composer felt the Salzburg musical scene was stifling for a man of his enormous talent and creativity.

Things came to a head in 1781 immediately after the successful premiere of Mozart's first mature work, Idomeneo, in Munich. He requested to be permanently discharged from his duties, and after several heated discussions his petition was granted, punctuated by a parting kick in the pants.

Now completely on his own for the first time, Mozart embarked on several happy years. He married Constanze Weber, sister to his childhood sweetheart Aloysia, and premiered a new work, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), at the Burgtheater. Mozart also gave concerts around Vienna, presenting a number of new piano concertos and symphonies. His chief concern was to procure a position at the imperial court. A small commission came his way from the emperor for a one-act comedy, Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario), given in the same evening as Antonio Salieri's Prima la musica e poi le parole (First the music, then the words), to celebrate the visit of the emperor's sister, Marie Christine, and her husband, joint rulers of the Austrian Netherlands.

The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart's first true masterpiece for the Imperial court, premiered at the Burgtheater in 1786 and went on to Prague the following year where it was a huge success. Don Giovanni premiered in Prague in 1787 to great acclaim, but its Vienna premiere in 1788 was coolly received. By this time, Mozart had received a minor Imperial posting, Kammermusicus, which required him to write dances for state functions. The position was hardly worthy of his skills and generated only a modest income, a weighty concern now that debts had begun to mount. Joseph ii commissioned another opera from Mozart, Così fan tutte, which premiered January 26, 1790. The emperor was too ill to attend the opening and died the following month. His brother, Leopold ii, assumed leadership, and Mozart hoped to be appointed Kapellmeister – instead he merely received a continuance of his previous position.

Crisis hit in 1791. Constanze's medical treatments at Baden and the birth of a second child pushed their finances to a critical point. Mozart's friend and fellow Freemason, the impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, suggested he try his luck with the suburban audiences at his Theater auf der Wieden. Composition of The Magic Flute began early that summer but had to be halted when two generous commissions came his way: a requiem for an anonymous patron (who hoped to pass it off as his own composition), and an opera seria to celebrate the new emperor's coronation as King of Bohemia. La clemenza di Tito premiered September 6, and The Magic Flute was completed in time to open September 30. The Requiem, however, remained unfinished, and as Mozart's health began to fail, the composer feared he was writing his own death mass. In December Mozart died at the age of 35 and was given a simple funeral by his impoverished widow, then buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of Vienna.    

Suggested Listening

Koth, Wunderlich, Bohme, Jochum

Jochum Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus

Deutsche Grammophon

Schafer, Bostridge, Petibon, Paton, Ewing, Löw, Kurosaki Christie

Les Arts Florissants

Erato

Reichmann, Kenny, Watson, Schreier, Gamlich, Salminen, Harnoncourt

Chor des Opernhauses Zürich and Mozartorchester des Opernhauses Zürich

Teldec

Wagner, Gruberova, Winbergh, Reinprecht, Pogatschnig, Battle, Heigl, Solti

Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Chorus

Decca    

Suggested Reading

Thomas Bauman 

W. A. Mozart – Die Enführung aus dem Serail

Cambridge University Press

Robert Gutman

Mozart – A Cultural Biography

Harcourt Brace & Co.

Charles Osborne

The Complete Operas of Mozart

Da Capo Press

John Rosselli

The Life of Mozart

Cambridge University Press

Volkmar Braunbehrens

Mozart in Vienna

Grove Weidenfeld 

For More Information

A class devoted to The Abduction from the Seraglio will be held on Monday, October 13, 2008.

Special guest speaker will be conductor Andrew Altenbach.

Call 612-333-6669 for tickets.