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VERSION:2.0
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CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
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DTSTAMP:20260502T001727Z
UID:041b5edc-c496-42a4-945f-51e4348ee738
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260627
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260501
DESCRIPTION:Jun 27 - Jul 11\, 2026\nWritten in German\, set in a sexy exoti
 c locale\, with zesty comic servants as foils to their grandiloquent roman
 tic masters\, The Abduction from the Seraglio was Mozart’s first popular
  smash. Deservedly so\, for the action plays neatly and the score is an ar
 k of marvels\, from folk ditties to toe-tapping musical-comedy numbers\, l
 ofty laments\, and virtuoso showstoppers. Yet to social-justice warriors o
 f the present day\, the plot is so much sexist and racist claptrap. Pirate
 s capture a noblewoman and her chambermaid\, sell them into a harem\, wher
 e against all odds they preserve their virtue long enough for the lady’s
  beloved to discover them and penetrate the perimeter. But boo! Their esca
 pe is foiled at the last second. Yet the Pasha who holds their lives in hi
 s hands sends them on their way\, to the volcanic rage of the loose cannon
  who oversees the harem. It’s predictable that the director Andrea Moses
  will subject the Orientalist\, misogynist text to unsparing “interrogat
 ion.” How much this will color the musical performances is hard to predi
 ct. We look to the conductor Thomas Guggeis to step up as Mozart’s chief
  advocate in the mix. Bülent Ceylan plays the Pasha\, who has a speaking 
 role. The sopranos are Adela Zaharia as the noble Konstanze\, whose wildly
  florid arias demand everything\; and Serafina Starke is Blonde\, whose me
 lodies are not so electric though her top notes are higher. The tenors are
  Siyabonga Maqungo as Konstanze’s beau Belmonte\, a stick figure given m
 usic of surpassing loveliness\, and Michael Laurenz (a former trumpeter) a
 s Belmonte’s peppy sidekick Pedrillo. The bass David Steffens takes his 
 shot at Osmin\, who ranges from two octaves below middle C to G above midd
 le C\, here and there dispatching coloratura hardly less intricate (at the
  opposite end of the scale) than the Queen of the Night’s. The list of s
 tars of yesteryear with whom Steffens has studied staggers the imagination
 . May he do them proud.
LOCATION:Staatsoper Unter den Linden\, Unter den Linden 7\, 10117 Berlin\, 
 Germany
SUMMARY:Die Entführung aus dem Serail\, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
URL;VALUE=TEXT:https://airmail.news/arts-intel/events/die-entfuhrung-aus-de
 m-serail-by-wolfgang-amadeus-mozart
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