The abduction from the seraglio
(Il ratto del serraglio)
In full score (Partitura)
Comic Singspiel in Three Acts
Text by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner, adapted by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie (the Younger)
Composed between July 29, 1781 and May 29, 1782
First performed in Vienna, July 16, 1782

The Abduction from the Seraglio was the earliest of Mozart’s five most famous operas, which include The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così Fan Tutte and The Magic Flute, and the first work he was to write for the Viennese stage, where it was successfully premiered in the summer of 1782. Written in the comparatively
unsophisticated form of “Singspiel”—in which most of the action takes place in spoken dialogue, followed by songs in which the characters express their inner feelings—it does not rely for its effects on Mozart’s genius for dramatic music, revealed more fully in his later works. Rather, it radiates an abundance of musical charm, youthful high spirits and spontaneous good humor, evergreen qualities that
have made it one of the most engaging and least pretentious masterpieces in the history of opera.

It is an extremely challenging work for singers, technically beyond the vocal means of many of even the finest operatic performers. Because it has been difficult to assemble ideal casts, worthy productions of The Abduction from the Seraglio have been fewer than for Mozart’s othes major operas. By means of exceflent recordings,
however, 2Oth-century audiences have come to appreciate fully its truly superlative qualities.

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