GIORGIO STREHLER’S PERFECT SERAGLIO

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

qcco_-_mozartThe recent Cmajor/Rai Com/Teatro alla Scala release of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail as a double DVD is a welcome addition to any opera collector’s library. The reasons are many, among them that this is a faithful reenactment of the note-perfect 1965 staging by the master director Giorgio Strehler, created then for the Salzburg Festival. Secondly, the conductor: Zubin Mehta brought back on board to lead the superb La Scala orchestra and a cast of rising young Mozart.

The visual aspects of the production are exquisite as well, starting with the impeccably designed and period-perfect costumes of Sybille Ulsamer. The chiaroscuro lighting of Marco Filibeck does wonders for the settings of Carla Ceravolo, and the revival of Strehler’s original production is faithfully brought back to life by stage director Mattia Testi.

Mauro Peter sings elegantly as Belmonte and behaves on stage as if to the manner born. Bass Tobias Kehrer is a competent singer with more weight in the middle voice than in the bottom range so essential to the role of Osmin. The Pedrillo is sung by Maximilian Schmitt with more voice than what is usually brought by singers of this role. And he is a good comic.

Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten has both the vocal heft and the agility demanded by all her arias and the essential dignity and noble bearing demanded by the role of Constanze. French soprano Sabine Devielhe is a splendid spitfire Blonde, good to look at and listen to. Cornelius Obonya acts with dignity as Pasha Selim.

Maestro Mehta conducts with Mozartian clarity and accompanies the singers never once overbearing them. Most significantly, Strehler’s production provides a lesson in operatic stage direction which this writer wishes that all stage directors hell-bent on improving and updating the great work of the 18th and 19th century would assimilate.

Rafael de Acha          http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”