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Culture Opera

Abduction from the Seraglio

ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO by Mozart (Opera Atelier). At the Elgin Theatre (189 Yonge). Runs to November 2. $38-$166. 1-855-622-2787, operaatelier.com. See listings. Rating: NNN

There’s lots of humour in Mozart’s Abduction From The Seraglio. It was apparently the composer’s most popular opera during his lifetime, and Opera Atelier’s Marshall Pynkoski sees the work as firmly belonging in the commedia dell’arte tradition.

Fair enough, but the director’s idea of humour, heavy-handed and rarely funny, weighs down much of the light plot.

Belmonte (Lawrence Wiliford) is left behind when his beloved Konstanze (Ambur Braid), her maid, Blonde (Carla Huhtanen), and his servant, Pedrillo (Adam Fisher), are kidnapped by the Turkish pasha Selim (Curtis Sullivan). The captives are secured in Selim’s palace and guarded by Osmin (Gustav Andreassen), who’s taken Blonde for his own. Selim wants to make Konstanze a member of his harem, too, but she’s staunchly committed to Belmonte.

The plot involves the rescue of the three, with comic complications and a final show of magnanimity on the pasha’s part.

The music, with “Turkish” sounds (mostly from percussion instruments), is played with a keen lightness by Tafelmusik under conductor David Fallis. It’s also generally well sung, though Andreassen’s Osmin could have a darker tone and more commanding weight. However, Jeanette Lajeunesse Zingg’s elegant choreography is always welcome.

Tenors Wiliford and Fisher are nicely contrasted in tone, Wiliford growing in stature and voice as the evening goes on. But their acting hijinks under Pynkoski’s unsubtle direction are hammy and often tedious.

In contrast, the women create full characters, adding warm feeling to the business they’re asked to do and making the comedy part of their nature. Both sopranos soar delightfully into the vocal stratosphere, fearlessly and impressively tossing off Mozart’s high notes.

Huhtanen is the perfect flirtatious soubrette down to her little toe, always holding the audience’s attention. Braid’s just as fine, a tall figure who knows how to clown one moment and be elegant the next. The composer gives her two long, contrasting but equally fiendish arias back to back, and you get the sense that Braid could reprise them as soon as she’s finished.

And as usual in an Opera Atelier production, the design is first-rate: Gerard Gauci’s rich sets and Margaret Lamb’s colourful costumes, lit by Bonnie Beecher.

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