Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sir Charles Mackerras, Yelda Kodalli :: Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail / Kodalli · Groves · Rancatore · Rose · Atkinson · Tobias · SCO · Mackerras [2000 film "Mozart in Turkey"]

Sir Charles Mackerras's approach to Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart's first true success, is somewhere right of William Christie's airy, original-instrument performance on Erato and left of some older-fashioned readings, such as Georg Solti's on Decca (alas, currently out of print). Mackerras's band plays modern instruments, but the touch is very light and tempi are fleet. Furthermore, he pares the dialogue to a minimum and so the show goes by without any tedium. The singing is a mixed bag. Paul Groves makes a classy Belmonte, Désirée Rancatore's Blonde is as good as any, and Lynton Atkinson copes amazing well with Pedrillo's helden-lyrische-tenor music. Peter Rose's voice is far from the basso profundo that always pleases in the role of Osmin, but he has all the notes and all the attitude without ever resorting to vulgarity. Oliver Tobias speaks the Pasha's lines with dramatic thrust. The real problem comes with the otherwise unknown Turkish sopranoYelda Kodalli's Konstanze--it's tonally and dramatically undistinguished, trill-free, too light, and not always exactly in tune. The good news is that her singing is always spirited. Given the available options, you should probably go with Christie or Bruno Weil (not to mention Solti), but this is far from bad. --Robert Levine