Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail

Mozart's famous Singspiel (an operatic genre with much recitative; the title is German for the Abduction from the Seragalio), after Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's work "Belmonte und Constanze", comes to life in the sumptuous setting of Topkapi, the Ottoman sultans' own Istanbul seraglio (palace harem). Belmonte finds his fiancee Constanze and her English maid Blondchen ('Blondie'), who were captured and sold by pirates, in the Meditarranean seraglio of the Ottoman pasha (military lord) Selim. Belmonte's servant Pedrillo gets him engaged as builder. After Selim tried to enforce himself upon Konstanze, Pedrillo and Blondchen, his own sweetheart, prepare their flight, managing to get Osmin, the pashas overseer, drunk. Yet Osmin and Selim's guard still capture them, already in the garden; however the touching display of true love melts the pashas heart, so he lets them go.