The Abduction from the Seraglio

In German language with German surtitles

Premiere: June 17, 2023

Director: Nurkan Erpulat

An opera right in the middle of the clashes between Orient and Occident, man and woman, culture and nature, revenge and forgiveness. An opera about the clash of two different cultures, but in shifted perspective, as Mozart scholar Volkmar Braunbehrens writes: "Europeans, forcibly detained at the court of a Turkish ruler, experience a magnanimity of much higher morality than they know from their own European countries."

The new production of Mozart's Singspiel by the award-winning director Nurkan Erpulat, who was born in Turkey and came to Berlin as a student in the early 2000s, is intended to provide a new and authentic view of this work at the Volksoper. In the process, the focus will also be on the female characters: "Especially with regard to the female characters, there are also a lot of questions about sexual morality, honour and loyalty," says the director. But in the interplay of historical and political discourse as well as pain-filled poetry, the work always remains a comedy for Erpulat - a Singspiel in fact, a Volksoper, a "people's opera", in the best sense!