MOZART-DIE ENTFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERIAL  / Radio-Sinfonienorchester Stuttgart / Conductor: Gianluigi Gelmetti / Staged and designed by Michael Hampe / Recorded live at the Grabado Rokokotheater Schwetzingen 1991 / DVD 

Grand Opera Classics

Format: NTSC

Run time: 156 Minutes

UPC: 880242550125

 
Languages : German / English / Spanish / French
Discs : 1

Not far behind are Charles Castranova, a brilliant voiced tenor as Belmonte and the pick of the gentlemen. This takes nothing away from Franz Hawlata, whose base voice is pretty impressive playing Osmin, and has some powerful low notes. Dietmar Kerschbaum is the last of the three male roles, and is perfectly adequate but does not quite jangle the ears to the same degree. I have left Valentina Farcas until last as I found her most delightful, she has looks , charm and a most listenable voice. So much for the front line'
The chorus , fairly small in number, do a very good job too, easy on the ears, and asked to perform some physical exacting routines at times as well.
Orchestra and voices are well balanced.
The sets are very varied, modernistic, symbolic, and completely devoid of realism, quite in keeping with the directors view.
The plot of the original has all but been thrown out of the window, there are a series of not unconnected Tableau, featuring a battle of the sexes, with Osmin stirring the melting pot in a number of different guises.
The costumes for leads and chorus are basically dinner suits and wedding dresses, with the ladies occasionally resorting to glamorous underwear, and the gentlemen resorting to less glamorous missing trousers. Still it all works very well.
Just another word on the sets, they are pretty mobile and include electronic backdrops and imaginative lighting.
One other point, there are also a number of spoken dialogues which qualify the attitude of the participants.
After the opening few set pieces I got drawn in and wondered what would happen next, even went through at one sitting, and I usually do one act at a time.
The booklet is informative on background, timings and so on.
Why the four stars? A nod in the direction of the more traditional among us as it really is a different animal entirely.