Mozart - Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) / Minkowski, Schafer, Groves, Tillawi, Salzburg Festival
Mozart's cute little comedy about the rescue of two kidnapped women from  a Turkish harem is brilliantly sung and well acted in this production from the  Salzburg Festival, but opinions will be divided on the direction and staging.  Costumes and scenic details (blue jeans, barbed wire, feminist demonstrations)  move the story up to the present time, and some additions to the original  text reinforce its Levantine atmosphere. These additions include quite a bit of dialogue in Arabic, translated in the subtitles, like the German text, and some Middle Eastern dances, with  non-Mozartian music supplied by Turkish musicians in the orchestra pit.  "Turkish" sounds (mainly metallic percussion) were fashionable in 18th-century Vienna and were included in Mozart's score, so in a sense these additions simply reinforce Mozart's own idea.All of the principal performers are excellent. Paul Groves (Belmonte) is that rarest of  singers, a good Mozart light tenor. Christine Schaefer breezes through  Constanze's vocal challenges. Malin Hartelius and Franz Hawlata give vigorous  performances with lots of personality.--Joe McLellan