Die Entführung aus dem Serail

I thought I'd be frustrated by Opera Australia's production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, which opened on Friday night. And I was, but not in the way I expected. We were promised an Entführung with an "ingenious contemporary twist", updated and set in "the cultural melting pot of an international airport". It was a concept which seemed to me both absurd and unnecessary, and I expected to be exasperated by disregard for the text and irrelevant attempts to make the opera "relevant" — whatever that means. I should be so lucky. There was nothing of the sort. Rather, this production was simply frustratingly dull, a series of missed opportunities and undeveloped ideas. In the end I would have prefered even poorly executed controversy to this, which was downright bland. The airport only features in the first and third acts. The second act, in which most of the action takes place, is set in a very traditionally Middle Eastern palace — were it not for the Western characters' modern day clothes, it could have been any standard Entführung. Even in the airport scenes, there was little ingenious or contemporary taking place. The "twist" such as it is seems to stop at the sets and costumes. It might look like a present day setting, but there's not much in the way it's played out to distinguish it from any other era, either in conception or in individual characterisations. Belmonte wears camouflage pants, Blonde is a platinum blonde, Pedrillo is an iPod and Osmin has a machine gun — but despite the props, there's nothing specifically contemporary in the way this Entführung plays out. It's thoroughly conventional and bland besides.

And yet it's by no means a failure. Theatrically it might be bland but musically there's much to recommend it. Jonathan Darlington's conducting is bright, multi-layered and idiomatic, uncovering facets of the music I'd not particularly noticed in the past. His mobile, enthusiastic style is appealing and I hope we'll see and hear plenty more from him. Andrew Goodwin as Belmonte is a godsend, a Mozart tenor who manages to sound suitably sweet but never thin or gormless. His "Hier soll ich dich denn sehen" was particularly appealing. He's aided and abetted by another Andrew — Andrew Brunsdon — as Pedrillo, singing ably for the most part though a touch strained in his "Frisch zur Kampfe". There's no question, however, that among the men — and indeed, the entire cast — the vocal star is Peter Rose, as a sonorous, velvety-voiced Osmin. This is no loathsome and lecherous Osmin but rather a rotund and rather likeable character, with a voice almost too beautiful for the part. 

Emma Matthews sings Konstanze with consummate ability, sailing effortlessly through a particularly perilous and taxing role with admirable agility and precision. She's unfortunately left slightly stranded by weak direction — her Konstanze lacks both definition and motivation. She's too inscrutable, neither dangerously tempted nor beautifully dignified; the anguished torment which "Martern aller Arten" ought to depict elicits little more than a lot of walking back and forth. It's possible too that the role ultimately requires a slightly fuller and more penetrating voice than she possesses. Certainly an excellent performance but, for all its brilliance, one slightly lacking in substance. Natalie Jones puts together a rather more individualised and vivid performance and a delightfully brassy and British Blonde. She sings with bright, pearly tone, rising adorably to the role's vocal challenges and taking obvious delight in its feisty humor — a total delight.

Kenneth Ransom is a surprisingly young and elegant Bassa Selim, a very contemporary royal and a highly engaging one, who makes it particularly hard to understand why this production chooses to have Konstanze remain steadfastly unattracted to her captor — a bit of chemistry between the two of them could go a long way to enlivening the show. Even Opera Australia's website assumes that such a temptation exists — according to the promotional blurb, "[t]he feisty pair must escape but when their lovers come to the rescue, will they want their freedom?" — but if it's intended, it's hard to detect.

A theatrical disappointment, then. A contemporary update ought to illuminate its subject, to inspire a reconsideration of its themes; even if it fails, it should at least stir up some kind of response, be it positive or negative. To my mind, this production does neither. Its good intentions seem to have died aborning, the concept never fleshed out or followed through. Instead it's stultifyingly conventional and static, enlivened only by the energy of a few individual performers. Musically, however, it's very successful and in the end it's this concern which triumphs. Not an Entführung to be watched with much interest — but definitely one worth hearing.

Comments

[Margaret]

Glad you had a good cast and it worked musically - when I saw it I thought it was just plain ugly and the cast didn't help much (with the exception of Blonde and Osmin). I also chose to take someone who'd never been to an opera before and I've regretted it ever since.