Good Fun

Hugely enjoyed listening to Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail over the weekend. For some reason I found it a lot easier to follow the opera in terms of its libretto this time around. I think the first time I listened through I was taken aback by just how much of the spoken material had been cut in John Elliot Gardener's Archiv version, which meant I struggled to make sense of J.D. McClatchy's verse translation. This time it was easy to keep tabs on the story, making guesses as to what was likely to be cut by reading in advance and figuring out what had to be retained to make sense of the plot.

And what a silly plot it is, though enough to enable Mozart to write some lusciously engaging music, and, possibly more important, some genuinely funny stuff. All the music for Osmin is wonderful - and what a marvellous scoundrel he is. I suppose I should be expressing some concerns about the stereotyping involved, especially as it affects my own faith, but I just can't be bothered. A scoundrel is a scoundrel and if he happens to get great music like this it seems petty to complain. And anyway Mozart scores big time in the tolerance stakes through his depiction of the Pasha Selim.

I must say, much as I can appreciate just how good Idomeneo is, and the qualities Wolfgang Amadeus brought to the table in opera seria, I'm very glad he got to the comic stuff eventually (especially when I've got Le Nozze di Figaro coming up for my next listen-through.)