The Abduction from the Seraglio Tickets

Vienna State Opera, Vienna, Austria

Scene 2 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

Scene 1 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

Scene 3 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

Scene 4 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

Scene 5 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

Scene 6 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

Scene 7 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

Scene 8 from the opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail"

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Available Dates: 12 - 24 Oct, 2025 (5 events)

Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Vienna, Austria

Duration: 3h with 1 interval

Acts: 2

Intervals: 1

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

Can I choose my seats?

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Choose the date to see the peformers

Creators

Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Librettist: Christoph Friedrich Bretzner

Librettist: Gottlieb Stephanie

Director: Hans Neuenfels

Overview

Rumour is told of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio that emperor Joseph II said it to be: "Too beautiful for our ears, and far too many notes, my dear Mozart." – to which Mozart’s alleged response was, »Exactly as many, Your Majesty, as are needed.«

Although this back and forth is found in Mozart’s biography, written by Franz Xaver Niemetschek eight years after the composer’s death, it cannot be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. Nonetheless, the sceptical praise ascribed to the emperor compounded the reservations the contemporary critics had. Most surrendered to the musical excess of the score: Mozart was said to have taken the subject too seriously, and it could be argued that his complex harmonies overwhelmed instrumentalists and listeners alike, and that his work "did not belong in the theatre".

»It's exciting when the singers often let the actors do the talking. Not because they can't, they speak too, but because they address the question of singing and speaking together,« says director Hans Neuenfels in conversation with artistic director and dramaturge Klaus Zehelein. By doubling all the singing roles with actresses and actors, Neuenfels succeeds in making the actors' inner emotional conflicts effective in highly poetic reflections. In The Abduction from the Seraglio, according to the director, Mozart sets existential questions to music; the production takes up this thread and leads the audience deep into the different emotional levels of the actors. Hans Neuenfels: »The different states of perception, of feeling, of being can take place simultaneously through the splitting up of the characters. We are several at the same time, and this becomes visible through this interpretation, but not in the sense of schizophrenia. Identity is not a fixed quantity. The 'I' is fundamentally unreliable.«

Indeed, Mozart over-enthused the genre of a play with musical interludes in favour of a musical world theatre: In this play, the star-crossed lovers Belmonte and Konstanze – as noted by the musical orchestra – sound out their existential dangers in musical proximity to the opera seria, while the ensemble art of the opera buffa blossoms in duets, trios and quartets, with vivid musical contrasts showcasing the difference between the upper class and servant-class figures. Mixed in, the viewer will not miss out on the traditional French opéra comique style of comical song and romance. The musical interpretation of Osmin, who, as the overseer of the country house of Bassa Selim, provokes the mockery and fears of the Europeans who dwell there, which is completely without precedent. For behind his mask of gluttony, drunkenness and polygamy there is none other than Bacchus, the god of intoxication, who cannot be brought under control by any rational discipline. He is one of those non-integrable types who – much like Elettra in "Idomeneo" or the Queen of the Night in "The Magic Flute" – must be driven out of the community of the enlightened, even exorcised, at the end of a play: "But just look at the animal there, whether one can bear such a thing." Osmin's coarse excesses are spiced up by Mozart’s use and sound of "Turkish music": triangle, cymbals, bass drum and flageolet, a relative of the recorder playing the high and highest register. Mozart fuses all these stylistic elements into a magnificent synthesis.

During his lifetime it was by far his most successful play which was enthusiastically performed at many theatres. At the same time, »Abduction« became the first German-language opera and has been performed without interruption ever since. At the Vienna State Opera, one of the successor institutions of the old Burgtheater – the very part of the Hofburg no longer in existence today and where "Abduction" held its premiere in 1782 – the work was performed almost every year between 1872 and 2000, before the latest new production of the State Opera came out in 2006 in what is known as today's Burgtheater.

The formal structure of the musical comedy, in which spoken dialogues mediate between the musical numbers, is pierced by a creative statement of Mozart's work, evidenced in one of the six main roles, where Bassa Selim plays a pure speaking role. In this role, a European man, driven out of his enlightened Western existence by the conspiracies of Belmont's father, who turned away from the Christian faith and gained power and wealth in the Orient, becomes consumed by an unhappy love for Konstanze, whom he acquires from the slave market, but who feels bound by a promise of loyalty. The border between spoken speech and song marks the impossibility of a union between both. To highlight that which this union is – a utopia – director Hans Neuenfels gives the same dignity to the art of the recitative as to the singing by casting actors once again to take on the solo singing roles. His new version of the libretto retains all of the original plot elements, with the acting and singing reflected in highly poetic reflections and interweavings. With good reason one can claim that the theatre has seldom succeeded in projecting this opera’s much-invoked as well as elusive emotional complications reminiscent of a chamber play onto the theatrical level as this master production has.

History

Premiere of this production: 16 July 1782, Burgtheater, Vienna

Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's Belmont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim. The work premiered on 16 July 1782 at the Vienna Burgtheater, with the composer conducting.

Synopsis

Place: the country house of the Pasha (German "Bassa"), in Turkey
Time: 16th century

Act 1
After a lively overture, Belmonte enters, looking for his betrothed, Konstanze, who with her English servant Blonde has fallen into the hands of pirates and been sold to Pasha Selim (Aria: "Hier soll ich dich denn sehen" – "Here surely I must find her"). Osmin, the Pasha's bad-tempered servant, comes to pluck figs in the garden and contemptuously ignores Belmonte's questions (Aria: "Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden" – "You may think, you've found a maiden"). Belmonte tries to obtain news of his servant, Pedrillo, who has been captured with the women and is serving as a servant in the Pasha's palace. Osmin replies with insults and abuse (Duet: "Verwünscht seist du samt deinem Liede!" – "The devil take you and your song, sir"). Belmonte leaves in disgust. Pedrillo enters and Osmin rages at him, vowing to get him tortured and killed in many different ways (Aria: "Solche hergelaufne Laffen" – "These young men who go a-spying"). Osmin leaves and Belmonte enters and happily reunites with Pedrillo. Together they resolve to rescue Konstanze and Blonde, who is Pedrillo's fiancée (Aria: "Konstanze, Konstanze, dich wiederzusehen … O wie ängstlich" – "Konstanze, Konstanze, to see thee again … Oh what trembling").

Accompanied by a chorus of Janissaries ("Singt dem großen Bassa Lieder" – "Sing to the mighty Pasha Selim"), Pasha Selim appears with Konstanze, for whose love he strives in vain (Aria of Konstanze: "Ach ich liebte" – "How I loved him"). Pedrillo tricks the Pasha into hiring Belmonte as an architect. When Belmonte and Pedrillo try to enter the palace, Osmin bars their way, but they hurry past him anyway (Terzett: "Marsch! Marsch! Marsch! Trollt euch fort!" – "March! March! March! Clear off!").

Act 2

The Pasha has given Blonde to Osmin, to be his slave; however, she defiantly rebuffs her new master's rough lovemaking attempts (Aria: "Durch Zärtlichkeit und Schmeicheln" – "With smiles and kind caresses"), threatens to scratch out his eyes, and chases him out of the room (Duet: "Ich gehe, doch rate ich dir" – "I'm going, but mark what I say"). Konstanze enters and greets Blonde in distress (Aria: "Welcher Wechsel herrscht in meiner Seele … Traurigkeit ward mir zum Lose" – "Oh what sorrow overwhelms my spirit … Endless grief tortures my spirit"). The Pasha enters, demands her love, and threatens to use force, but she resolutely rejects him. (Aria: "Martern aller Arten" – "Tortures unrelenting") Left alone, he muses on her determination to remain chaste, which increases his desire for her.

Pedrillo informs Blonde that Belmonte has come and is planning to rescue them. Blonde is filled with joy. (Aria: "Welche Wonne, welche Lust" – "Oh, the happy, happy day"). After singing a short ditty to boost his courage (Aria: "Frisch zum Kampfe" – "Now Pedrillo, now for battle!"), Pedrillo invites Osmin to drink (Duet: "Vivat Bacchus! Bacchus lebe!" – "Here's to Bacchus, long live Bacchus"). Despite his religious prohibition against alcoholic beverages, Osmin drinks heavily and falls asleep. Konstanze joins Belmonte who declares his love (Aria: "Wenn der Freude Tränen fließen" – "When tears of joy flow"). The two couples reunite (Quartet, Belmonte, Konstanze, Pedrillo, Blonde: "Ach Belmonte! Ach, mein Leben" – "Ah, Belmonte, ah my dear one!"). After their initial expressions of love and joy, Belmonte and Pedrillo both question anxiously whether their respective fiancees have remained faithful during their forced separation; to their delight the women respond with indignation and dismay, and Blonde slaps Pedrillo's face. The two men apologize for their failure of confidence; the women forgive them for the offensive questions.

Act 3

Belmonte and Pedrillo come to the garden with ladders (Aria, Belmonte: "Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke" – "Love, only love, can now direct me"). Pedrillo gets the attention of the women by singing a ballad about a rescue similar to the one he is planning (Romanze, Pedrillo: "In Mohrenland gefangen war" – "In Moorish lands a maiden fair"). However, Osmin enters, sees the ladders, and rouses the castle. Osmin exults in the prospect of seeing them all hanged (Aria: "O, wie will ich triumphieren" – "My triumphant hour's approaching"). Belmonte pleads for their lives and tells Pasha Selim that his father is a Spanish Grandee and Governor of Oran, named Lostados, and will pay a generous ransom. Unfortunately, Pasha Selim and Lostados are long-standing enemies. The Pasha rejoices in the opportunity to subject his enemy's son to a horrible death. He leaves Belmonte and Konstanze to bid each other a last farewell; they lovingly assure each other that being tortured to death will be a pleasure, so long as they get tortured to death together (Duet: "Welch ein Geschick! O Qual der Seele.... Weh, du soltest für mich sterben" – "What dreadful fate conspires against us.... Woe, you will die because of me"). However, the Pasha decides that he can make a better point against Lostados by showing mercy and releasing Belmonte and his friends. All are set at liberty – much to the dismay of Osmin, who would prefer to see them all brutally executed (Finale: "Nie werd' ich deine Huld verkennen" – "Your noble mercy passes measure").

Venue Info

Vienna State Opera - Vienna
Opernring 2

The Vienna State Opera is one of the leading opera houses in the world. Its past is steeped in tradition. Its present is alive with richly varied performances and events. Each season, the schedule features 350 performances of more than 60 different operas and ballets. The members of the Vienna Philharmonic are recruited from the Vienna State Opera's orchestra. The building is also the home of the Vienna State Ballet, and it hosts the annual Vienna Opera Ball during the carnival season.

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The opera house was the first major building on the Vienna Ringstrasse commissioned by the Viennese "city expansion fund". Work commenced on the house in 1861 and was completed in 1869, following plans drawn up by architects August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Nüll. It was built in the Neo-Renaissance style by the renowned Czech architect and contractor Josef Hlávka.

Gustav Mahler was one of the many conductors who have worked in Vienna. During his tenure (1897–1907), Mahler cultivated a new generation of singers, such as Anna Bahr-Mildenburg and Selma Kurz, and recruited a stage designer who replaced the lavish historical stage decors with sparse stage scenery corresponding to modernistic, Jugendstil tastes. Mahler also introduced the practice of dimming the lighting in the theatre during performances, which was initially not appreciated by the audience. However, Mahler's reforms were maintained by his successors.

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From the 2010–2011 season a new company was formed called Wiener Staatsballet, Vienna State Ballet, under the direction of former Paris Opera Ballet principal dancer Manuel Legris. Legris eliminated Harangozós's policy of presenting nothing but traditional narrative ballets with guest artists in the leading roles, concentrated on establishing a strong in-house ensemble and restored evenings of mixed bill programs, featuring works of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, and many contemporary choreographers, as well as a reduced schedule of the classic ballets.

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