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Upcoming Events |
Tickets:
On sale through Miller Center for the Arts Box Office. Call 610-607-6270 now or buy online beginning June 27.
Go to Racc and click "Events."
20% discount for groups of 15 or more; must be purchased in advance, by one purchaser
Seating is general admission, but priority seating will be in designated rows.
SYNOPSIS
Turkey, 18th century: Outside and inside Pasha Selim’s palace, somewhere along the Turkish coast.
ACT I.
Belmonte, a Spanish nobleman, is reconnoitering outside the Pasha’s palace. He is searching for his fiancée, Konstanze. (She, her English servant, Blonde and Blonde’s fiancée, Pedrillo, have been captured by pirates and sold to the Pasha.) Osmin, the Pasha's grumpy harem overseer, tends fig trees in the garden. Instead of answering Belmonte’s inquiries about Pedrillo, Osmin insults him. He leaves and Pedrillo enters. Osmin abuses him as well, telling him in some detail how he plans to have him tortured and killed. Osmin then leaves. Belmonte reunites with Pedrillo, and they conspire to rescue their fiancées.
Accompanied by his Janissaries (and much pomp and circumstance), the Pasha arrives with Konstanze. He wants her for his harem, but prefers to win her over by kindness rather than force – up to a point. She puts him off gently. Pedrillo introduces Belmonte to the Pasha as a “famous architect.” Osmin tries to bar Belmonte and Pedrillo, but they hurry past him anyway, into the Pasha’s palace.
ACT II.
Blonde rebuffs Osmin’s rude advances. After a charming duet in which she offers to scratch out his eyes and he delivers doubtful advice about how Englishmen should treat their women, Osmin departs. Selim now has tired of waiting for Konstanze to love him voluntarily, and threatens to use force. She explains at considerable length how her love for Belmonte allows her to laugh at every sort of death and torture.
Pedrillo informs Blonde that Belmonte has come to rescue them. Pedrillo then gets Osmin drunk (in violation of Allah’s laws). When the two couples come together at last, Belmonte and Pedrillo question whether their fiancées have adequately resisted the Pasha and Osmin during their captivity. The women are indignant but eventually forgive the offensive questions.
ACT III.
That night, Belmonte and Pedrillo come to the garden with ladders to escape with the women. However, they all are caught by Osmin, who rouses the entire palace. Belmonte tells the Pasha that his father is a Spanish Grandee named Lostados, who will pay a generous ransom. Unfortunately, the Pasha and Lostados are long-standing enemies. The Pasha is delighted at the prospect of killing his enemy's son and the others. He leaves Belmonte and Konstanze to say their final farewell. But the Pasha has a change of heart: he would score a better point against Lostados by releasing Belmonte and his friends. All are set free (much to Osmin’s disgust) and laud Pasha’s magnitude in joyous finale.