Mozart: Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail / Solti, Venna State Opera Chorus, Vienna PO

The plot is silly: two European sopranos (Konstanze and her maid Blonde) have been kidnapped by pirates and sold to a Middle-Eastern potentate, Pasha Selim, who puts them in his harem and then waits docilely for Konstanze to fall in love with him. A tenor (Pedrillo) has also been enslaved and put to work as a handyman. Belmonte, Konstanze's lover, comes on the scene, determined to rescue the captives; he and Pedrillo give the overseer Osmin (bass) drugged wine, begin to escape, and are captured and scheduled for execution when the Pasha decides to let them go. Two hours of ado about nothing, except that it gave Mozart the occasion to write some of the finest music of his early maturity. Georg Solti and his all-star musicians give a dazzling performances. --Joe McLellan