Abduction from the Seraglio: Opera Bilbao

About the Event

Immerse yourself in the stunning architecture of Bilbao's breathtaking Palacio Euskalduna for the ultimate concert set to awake your understanding of opera.

2024 starts with Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), the first German opera completed by Mozart, which returns to the ABAO Bilbao Opera season after 29 years of absence.
An opera composed in his youth and inspired in his own personal circumstances, his beliefs as well as his fears, The Abduction from the Seraglio expresses Mozart’s spiritual romanticism and his high regard for courtly love and the beloved woman.

The opera belongs to the “Turkish” genre, full of mystery, sensuality and seduction, with the recurrent theme of the maiden’s unbreakable fidelity towards her absent loved one. It is a deeply moving work, not only due to the fact that it is Mozart’s first complete Singspiel, but also due to the joy, courage and spirit that it exudes from the very first note.

It is an opera of intrigue with all the required exotic elements: a seraglio, captive maidens waiting to be rescued by a distant lover, a sultan, servants and many ambiguous situations.

Amongst the protagonists, the much awaited return of Jessica Pratt in the role of Konstanze, which requires a soprano of exceptional characteristics, and Moisés Marín, as the troubled lover Belmonte. Leonor Bonilla and Mikeldi Atxalandabaso as Blonde, the maid, and the loyal servant Pedrillo, complete the leading quartet.

Lucía Marin makes her debut on the podium of ABAO leading the Euskadiko Orkestra in a score that is stunning, colourful and full of emotion, dynamism and Mozartian poetic intensity.

A new production by ABAO Bilbao Opera, devised by Mariano Baudin, who also makes his debut, with a proposal inspired by the spaces and atmospheres of the Ottoman Empire and which offers a cascade of sensations and emotions with a rhythm that is addressed in detail as well as an elegant wardrobe full of exoticism.