Staging Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 2025 presents an exciting challenge - how to honour the brilliance of Mozart’s composition while reimagining the work for contemporary audiences?

A key question has guided our approach: how can we move beyond the opera’s outdated exoticism while preserving the essence of its story and emotional charge? Rather than erasing the provocative heart of the original, we’ve leaned into it, retaining the seductive danger of the harem setting and the complex psychological undertones of Konstanze’s attraction to her captor.

In our version, the Pasha Selim is no longer a Turkish ruler but a modern, enigmatic figure, part Gatsby, part cult leader, who presides over lavish, anything-goes parties behind closed gates. This is the world Konstanze and Blonde are drawn into - a world of sensuality, temptation, and blurred boundaries. The same emotional forces at play in the original libretto remain intact; desire, fear, power, and freedom, refracted through a contemporary lens.

When Mozart encountered the original libretto, adapted from a play titled Belmont und Konstanze, oder Die Verführung aus dem Serail (Belmont and Konstanze, or The Seduction from the Seraglio) he saw its potential. Even after the title changed, the themes of seduction, sexual conflict, and taboo remained at the work’s core.

Die Entführung aus dem Serail and our Abduction walks a thrilling tightrope between raucous comedy and serious drama. On the surface, it plays like a farce with absurd hijinks, manic lovers, and operatic bluster, but beneath the comedy lies a sincere exploration of control, freedom, and desire. Mozart masterfully balances slapstick humour with moments of psychological depth, giving us characters who are both ridiculous and painfully real.

This tonal duality is what makes the opera so rich. It invites laughter, then undercuts it with emotional honesty. This tension is what makes this opera, nearly 250 years on, still worth staging and still capable of surprising us.