ADOB to play Mozart opera in Russian city

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

‘Abduction from Seraglio’ will be on stage in two performances in Yekaterinburg. AA photo

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “Abduction from Seraglio,” which is set in 16th century Istanbul, will be staged in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg by the Ankara State Opera and Ballet (ADOB). The opera will be staged on May 23 and 25 as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Yekaterinburg Academic Opera and Ballet Theaters.

Staged by Yekta Kara, the opera was previously performed in Estonia and South Korea. In Russia the orchestra will be conducted by Tolga Taviş. The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio of the Pasha Selim.

Inspired by Ottoman Empire

Speaking about the tour to Russia, ADOB director Erdoğan Davran said Mozart had composed the work inspired by the Ottoman Empire in that period. “He was inspired by the Ottomans but he had never met an Ottoman. He composed the opera thanks to what he had heard from people and paintings depicting the Ottomans,” he said.

Davran said the most striking part of the work was that Selim Pasha set the son of his greatest enemy free. “He sets the son of the Spanish king free to go with the woman he loved,” he added to emphasize the forgiving nature of the Ottomans at the end of the work.

Davran said a group from Estonia took the stage at the Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival and in return, the opera had been performed by ADOB at the Saaremaa Festival in Estonia. He said the opera was performed to a full house. “We were the festival’s only opera that played to a full house, because they are curious about Turks. The hall of 3,000 people was full.”

Davran said that after Estonia, they went to the Daegu International Opera Festival in South Korea and took the stage in two performances. “We were welcomed like pop stars there,” he said.

He said that one month before the performance in Russia, he had gone to the country to meet with the Yekaterinburg Opera’s general director. “The general director told me that ‘Abduction from the Seraglio’ received great interest since a work by Mozart is played by Turks.”

“Yekaterinburg is the city where the Russian Czar Nikola Romanov and his family were killed by a firing squad. The city could not have accepted this massacre and a cathedral was built there,” he said.