At the beginning of 1781 Mozart completed the composition of Idomeneo, re di Creta. After having been postponed several times, the opera was staged in Munich on 29th January of the same year, and was highly successful. With Idomeneo Mozart had finally reached full maturity as a composer of opera.



Die Entführung aus dem Serail is based on a rather banal libretto by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner. In formal terms it is a typical Singspiel of comic nature; an opera, that is, in which musical pieces alternate with recited passages, unlike the ‘dry recitative’ of Italian opera which is sung to the accompaniment of a basso continuo. The Singspiel was originally an eminently popular genre; the sung part was often entrusted to actors, who as singers were little better than honest amateurs, and made up of easily-memorised ariettas of modest length. Die Entführung aus dem Serail, in contrast, is musically very varied, with quite elaborate arias and duets of remarkable length, and the opera requires singers with great vocal range and first-class virtuoso technique.



This radio recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, made in Bolzano in 1958 with the orchestra and chorus of the Milan RAI under the artistic direction of Peter Maag.

Enjoy this opera, which has been carefully remastered with 24 bit / 96 kHz. – A must for all Peter Maag fans.