Barcelona’s prestigious Teatre del Liceu presents Mozart’s beloved singspiel in an elegant, sober production by Christof Loy with a splendid cast of top international stars headed by coloratura soprano Diana Damrau in her debut at Spain’s largest and most distinguished opera house. Damrau’s “crystal-clear high notes... and her charismatic stage presence announced from her very first entrance that we were in the presence of a great singer” asserted Opera News. Others hailed her as “the only true Konstanze around anywhere” (Seen and Heard). Blonde is interpreted by the strikingly beautiful and agile Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, while elegant tenor Christoph Strehl dazzles in the demanding role of Konstanze’s lover Belmonte. Norbert Ernst is a light and winning Pedrillo, and bass Franz-Josef Selig a rich, deep Osmin. Lending nobility and grandeur to the spoken role of Bassa Selim is German actor Christoph Quest. Stage director Christof Loy shows “a richly detailed, cleverly theatrical staging”. In this production, he lets us imagine a scenario
in which both Konstanze and Blonde have developed profound feelings of respect, admiration and even love for their captors. It is a tantalizing approach that demolishes the traditional good/ evil pattern. Under the agile hands of period-music specialist Ivor Bolton, “the delicate, alert orchestral playing matched the precision of the production and the quality of the singing” (Opera News).