High jinks at the Harem

Hostage-taking, polygamy, sexual bullying, torture, the clash of Christian and Muslim cultures. An episode of the BBC’s Question Time, possibly? Or an Ethical and Religious Studies lesson at Repton?

In fact it was the latest Opera Society outing, to a new production at Birmingham Hippodrome of Mozart’s comic masterpiece “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, which raised these big, still sharply controversial issues. “Die Entführung” is a so-called “rescue opera”, whose plot is based on the efforts of a Spanish nobleman (and his servant) to free his betrothed (and her servant) from the clutches of a Turkish potentate who has bought them from pirates as additions to his substantial harem of wives and retainers.

Welsh National Opera’s staging updated the action to a suite of carriages on the Orient Express (circa 1920), between whose interlocking spaces the comic action of the intrigue developed. This is a relatively early work in Mozart’s output, yet there is room among the burlesque, buffoonery and racial stereotyping for deeper emotions to surface, in some of the composer’s most technically difficult and heartfelt vocal writing.

The opera was generally very well sung, though it was a pity the rousing choral contributions were rendered virtually inaudible by placing the singers behind the railway “carriages”, the only serious miscalculation in a generally slick, intelligent production.

The evening was certainly much enjoyed by the Reptonian contingent, for whom next year’s Society trips are already firmly inked into the diary, and will feature visits to Beethoven’s Fidelio, Strauss’s Die Fledermaus and Puccini’s Turandot, all operas the Society has not seen previously.

Another “first” will be next term’s visit (on Thursday 20 May) to Opera North’s new Howard Assembly Room in Leeds for a recital by Mark Padmore, the eminent English operatic tenor. Membership of the Repton Opera Society is open to all pupils, and further details of future outings can always be obtained from Mr Stevens or Mr Blain, the Society’s two Staff Officers.

Photograph courtesy of Johan Persson