The plot couldn't be simpler: the Spanish nobleman Belmonte must free his
fiancée Konstanze, her English maid Blonde and Belmonte's servant Pedrillo
from the clutches of the Turkish Bassa, or Pasha, Selim. Belmonte must
sneak into the pasha's seraglio and sneak back out again, all the while
eluding and outsmarting Osmin, the overseer of the harem. With his Salzburg
production of 2003, young Norwegian director Stefan Herheim raised a storm
of controversy that continued to crackle in 2006, when the production was
revised for the Mozart 22 cycle.
The controversy was largely due to the fact that Herheim transposed the
events to the inner world of the human psyche. The harem is no longer a
real harem, but a psychological place of longing and desire, enticing and
yet threatening at the same time. The entire exotic, Janissary scenery
gives way to the more familiar images of one's own sexual urges and
impulses. The production revolves around the question: how does a man get a
woman? To get to the bottom of this age-old question, Herheim shows how men
and women try to seek happiness together and fail since they are caught in
conventions and subservient to their inner demons - illustrated here by
Osmin as priest and devil. "It is a genesis, the beginning of all
beginnings, when man is separated into two sexes, is disoriented, and from
then on seeks to return to his original form in ever new constellations,"
explains Herheim.
Giving powerful accounts of their difficult roles is a top-notch cast
dominated by Laura Aikin as Konstanze and Charles Castronovo as Belmonte.
With her elegiac Andante arias, Aikin is an oasis of calm and nobility.
Castronovo suggests his own vulnerability with his wonderfully lyrical
timbre. At the head of the Mozarteum Orchestra, Ivor Bolton once again
confirms his reputation as a dynamic and sensitive interpreter of Baroque
and Classical operas. The clarity and wisdom of his music-making provide an
astute contrast to the turbulent activity on stage. Indeed, the marriage of
orchestra and voices evokes the image of the stage of life: on the surface,
everything is in motion; below, order rules - but it is an order that is
often lost in everyday life.
The DVD is also released within the DVD package "Mozart 22 - The complete operas" which is available in selected stores worldwide and through Amazon or JPC.