Konstanze, Belmonte's fiancée, has been kidnapped by pirates with her maid Blonde and with Pedrillo, Belmonte's servant. The suspicious Turkish choleric Osmin, who wants to torture and then kill every stranger, loses his rudeness in the proximity of the self-confident Blonde. And Bassa Selim courts Konstanze with persistent yet gentle constancy until he threatens her too with "martyrdom of all kinds". Belmonte, who has finally found the missing persons and is making plans with Pedrillo to escape, jealously stoops to reproaching his fiancée. Pedrillo also accuses Blonde of encouraging Osmin. Simultaneously imprisoned and wooed, at the mercy of strangers, the power of the captives and the powerlessness of the powerful plunges everyone into a passionate chaos of conflicting emotions, jealousy, hurt and despair, tears, slaps in the face, and in the end: reconciliation.
Unique to this opera is that its central character, Bassa Selim, is conceived as a speaking role. The Oriental, who refuses to listen to the music of the Europeans, surpasses them in magnanimity at the end. Around him emerges a sonic web of uniquely differentiated musical characterization artistry and poignant emotionality, provided with Janissary chorus and more than a dash of humor.
Text source and more information about this event at: http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/programm/spielplan/2017-01/die-entfuehrung-aus-serail-2016-2017/2196/
