Die Entführung aus dem Serail

With the help of their lovers, Konstanze and her maid plot their escape from Pasha Selim’s harem. But when their plans are betrayed and punishment looms, help comes from an unlikely quarter. Mozart’s first Viennese opera boasts some of his most spectacularly virtuosic vocal music, especially for the heroine Konstanze. David McVicar’s hedonistic culture-clash comedy sets Die Entführung aus dem Serail in an 18th-century Eastern fantasy of sun-filled gardens and cool, shady terraces.