Warner Classics: Mozart — Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2-CD Audio Set) / Harnoncourt

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Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD (2-disc set)
• Brand / Label: Warner Classics
• Artist / Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
• Ensemble: Chor und Mozart-Orchester des Opernhauses Zürich
• Cast: Yvonne Kenny (Konstanze), Lillian Watson (Blonde), Peter Schreier (Belmonte), Wilfried Gahmlich (Pedrillo), Matti Salminen (Osmin), Wolfgang Reichmann (Selim)
• Release Year: 2017 (reissue; original recording: 1985, Teldec Classics)
• Genre: Classical / Opera
• Style: Classical Period, Singspiel, Opera
• UPC: 0190295869137
• Condition: Factory Sealed

Product Features

• Format: 2 × Audio CD
• Discs: 2
• CD1 runtime: 70:30 / CD2 runtime: 64:54
• Total runtime: approx. 135 minutes
• Booklet: Includes English text & synopsis / Deutscher Text & Handlung / Textes & synopsis en français
• Packaging: Standard double jewel case, factory sealed
• Series: The Home of Opera

Overview

Opera magazine called this "the most satisfactory version of the opera yet to be recorded." That verdict was delivered in 1985, and it has not been significantly challenged since. Nikolaus Harnoncourt's recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail remains the benchmark against which other readings are measured — partly for its scholarship, and partly because it simply sounds alive in a way that many more polished productions do not.

The opera itself is one of Mozart's most inventive early works. Written in 1782 on commission from Emperor Joseph II, it belongs to the Singspiel tradition — alternating sung arias with spoken dialogue — and deploys a full arsenal of "Turkish" percussion and janissary-band colour that was both exotic and slightly satirical in its original context. Mozart was 26, newly arrived in Vienna, and writing with everything to prove.

Harnoncourt came to this score through his ongoing collaboration with stage director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle at the Zurich Opera, and that theatrical grounding shows. The pacing is dramatic without being rushed. Mozart's orchestral textures — piccolo, triangle, cymbals, bass drum cracking through the ensemble — land with genuine shock and wit rather than becoming wallpaper. The spoken dialogue is delivered with real purpose.

The cast is exceptional throughout. Yvonne Kenny brings warmth and precise coloratura to Konstanze's demanding arias, particularly the formidable "Martern aller Arten." Peter Schreier's Belmonte is ardent and finely shaded. Matti Salminen is a Osmin of genuine menace and dark comic weight — a role that can easily tip into parody, but doesn't here. This 2017 Warner Classics reissue makes the recording available in a clean two-disc format with a multilingual libretto booklet, giving new listeners the easiest possible route to one of the great Mozart opera recordings.

Interesting Facts

• Die Entführung aus dem Serail was premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 16 July 1782, just weeks before Mozart's marriage to Constanze Weber — the opera's heroine shares her name.
• Emperor Joseph II famously remarked after the premiere that the opera contained "too many notes." Mozart's reported reply: "Just as many as are necessary, Your Majesty."
• The "Turkish" musical style in the score — featuring piccolo, triangle, cymbals, and bass drum — was a deliberate genre convention known as Janissary music, fashionable in Viennese theatre of the 1780s.
• Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929–2016) was one of the founding figures of the historically informed performance movement; his Concentus Musicus Wien, founded in 1953, was among the first ensembles to perform Baroque music on period instruments.
• Peter Schreier, who sings Belmonte here, was one of the preeminent Mozart tenors of the 20th century and also a distinguished conductor, particularly in Bach and Schubert.
• This recording grew directly out of Harnoncourt and Ponnelle's Zurich Opera production — one of the most critically acclaimed Mozart stagings of its era — giving the audio version an unusually strong sense of theatrical intention for a studio recording.

Track Listing

CD 1 — Act I & Act II (70:30)

1. Overture / 2. Hier soll ich dich denn sehen / 3. Aber wie soll ich in den Palast kommen? / 4. Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden / 5. Könnt ich mir doch noch so einen Schurken auf die Nase setzen / 6. Solche hergelauf'ne Laffen / 7. Geh nur, verwünschter Aufpasser / 8. Konstanze! dich wiederzusehen! / 9. Geschwind, geschwind auf die Seite und versteckt! / 10. Singt dem großen Bassa Lieder (Chor der Janitscharen) / 11. Immer noch traurig, geliebte Konstanze? / 12. Ach ich liebte, war so glücklich / 13. Ihr Schmerz, ihre Tränen, ihre Standhaftigkeit / 14. Marsch! Marsch! Marsch! trollt euch fort! / 15. Durch Zärtlichkeit und Schmeicheln / 16. Zärtlichkeit! Schmeicheln! / 17. Ich gehe, doch rate ich dir / 18. Wie traurig das gute Mädchen daher kommt! / 19. Welcher Wechsel herrscht in meiner Seele / 20. Ach mein bestes Fräulein! Noch immer so traurig? / 21. Martern aller Arten

CD 2 — Act II (cont.) & Act III (64:54)

1. Ist das ein Traum? / 23. Kein Bassa, keine Konstanze mehr da? / 24. Welche Wonne, welche Lust! / 25. Ah, daß es schon vorbei wäre! / 26. Frisch zum Kampfe! / 27. Ha! Gehts hier so lustig zu? / 28. Vivat Bacchus! / 29. Wahrhaftig es geht doch nichts über den Wein! / 30. Wenn der Freude Tränen fließen / 31. Ich hab hier ein Schiff in Bereitschaft / 32. Ach, Belmonte! ach, mein Leben! / 33. O Konstanze! Wie schlägt mir das Herz! / 34. Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke / 35. Alles liegt auf dem Ohr / 36. In Mohrenland gefangen war

Publishers

Originally recorded 1985 by Teldec Classics, a Warner Music UK Division. This edition © 2017 Parlophone Records Limited, a Warner Music Group Company. Published under the Warner Classics label as part of The Home of Opera series.

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