Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) is the first of Mozart’s five mature and most famous operas, composed in 1781 for the Imperial Opera in Vienna and given its première there the next year, with the composer conducting. Like The Magic Flute, it is a Singspiel, that is, a German play, the dialogue of which is interspersed with songs and arias. The action is primarily advanced by the dialogue, with the music providing moments of reflection and intensification of the mood. It was a relatively new theatrical genre at the time, having been heavily influenced by the English Beggar’s Opera of 1728. Gilbert and Sullivan owed much to that model.
The libretto was more or less lifted from a contemporary production of the same year in Berlin, much to the original author and composer’s outrage. The story is a simple one: The hero, Belmonte and his manservant, Pedrillo, attempt to rescue his beloved, Konstanze, from her captivity in the palace (seraglio) of a Turkish despot. Konstanze is accompanied by her English maid, Blonde, who is the beloved—naturally—of Pedrillo. Both the captives are overseen by the palace majordomo, Osmin, a pompous, but ineffectual, lecher.
The whole is suffused with supposed “Turkish” cultural, musical, and ethnic elements. These stereotypes were popular in eighteenth-century Vienna, owing to its history of constant invasion by the Turks. Even today, museums in Vienna are full of artifacts from that time. Mozart’s response to the story and its setting was a work of wit, charm, and humorous high jinks that was not excelled by any of his subsequent operas. And, it must be said, The Abduction poses perhaps the most consistent vocal challenges of all of the composer’s works. From the basso profundo of Osmin to the coloratura of Konstanze—every part was obviously written for a virtuoso.
Finally, for all those troubled by the implied misogyny and insult to woman’s fidelity in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, The Abduction’s two female characters, Konstanze and Blonde, are paragons of feminine independence, power, and defiance. They exhibit a courage and strength of character rare in eighteenth-century depictions of women.
“Welche Wonne, welche Lust” is the English maid’s aria in the second act. The act begins with the enslaved Blonde fearlessly knocking down the sinister advancements of Osmin. He says that in Turkey men do as they will with women; she replies that as an Englishwoman that is absurd, and laughs him off with disdain. After a coloratura major aria (“Tortures of Every Kind”) by Konstanze (with more feminine defiance), Pedrillo’s surreptitious entry surprises them. He tells them that Belmonte has arrived and the two will be at their windows with ladders at midnight to save them both.
At this, Blonde exults with this infectious, happy aria, the virtuoso demands of which are a showcase for this soubrette rôle. That the melody Mozart recycled from his flute concerto of four years earlier detracts not the slightest from its perfect reflection of Blonde’s human joy and happiness in the moment.
The Abduction from the Seraglio was an immediate hit, and was soon performed throughout German-speaking Europe. This is the work that famously prompted the Emperor’s enigmatic remark, “Too many notes, my dear Mozart.” But we all know better. Mozart’s first obituary opined that the work was “the pedestal upon which his fame was erected.”
–Wm. E. Runyan
© 2025 William E. Runyan