I have been a fan of opera and of Mozart for pretty much all my life. I am not as familiar with Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail as I am with Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflote(The Magic Flute), Le Nozze Di Figaro(The Marriage of Figaro) and Cosi Fan Tutte, but while I do have a personal preference to them Die Entfurung is a mostly great opera. While the story occasionally isn't sure whether it wants to be serious or comic, the opera itself is full of memorable characters, beautiful melodies and gentle humour.
This is a wonderful production with great performances especially. The music is brilliant, and the Overture is played perfectly by the orchestra and everywhere else is stylish and articulate. Karl Bohm's conducting is mostly solid, with the orchestra under his baton they produce a lively rich sound with a romantic edge. Welch Ein Geshick is incredibly poignant. If there is anything to criticise Bohm it is some of his tempos.
While not as glaringly obvious as the recitatives in the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle film of Marriage of Figaro(I still love it though) or of the Champagne Aria in the 1977 live performance of Don Giovanni, I can find Bohm's tempos in Mozart rather slow. There are times in this production where he speeds up or slows down(sometimes not just a little bit sometimes it is significantly) and it catches the singers by surprise, this is particularly true of Gruberova.
Everything else though in general is fine. The costumes and sets are traditional and very beautiful, my favourite costume was Gruberova's low-cut cream satin dress. The humour is gentle and done very well, I particularly loved the jokes about Osmin's size and height, and the staging is very effective my favourite being Osmin and Pedrillo's duet and they stage him bathing.
The performances are mostly excellent. My least favourite, though she was good still, was Reri Grist as Blonde. She was feisty and very well acted, and she does show some angelic singing, but there are other times when she is rather shrill. Francissco Araiza is an ardent and flexibly-sung Belmonte, but there are times when he is rather stiff.
Norbert Orth is great as Pedrillo and Edita Gruberova is perfect as Konstanze and nails Martern Aller Arten. Thomas Holtzmann is very powerful as Pasha(the sole non-singing part, Pasha is a speaking role), the most interesting character besides Osmin.
Stealing the show is the Osmin of the production, the late great Finnish bass Martti Talvela. Not only does he cut such a figure on stage, being very tall and big, the tallest bass I've seen since Chaliapin perhaps, but he is both deathly funny and wickedly ominous. Complete with outstanding acting and a wonderful rich voice with superb style and sustained notes to die for- I was willing to forgive his sharp low D because not only is that note difficult to pitch and project but other than Moll, Pinza and perhaps Frick few Osmins have nailed it- and you have a bass that is simply born to sing this difficult and prominent role.
All in all, wonderful. 9/10 Bethany Cox
