The Abduction from the Seraglio (Gran Teatro del Liceu)

Constanze, a noble Spanish lady, her English servant Blondchen, and Pedrillo, the servant of Constanze's fiancé Belmonte, have been abducted by Moorish pirates and handed over to the Pasha Selim, who imprisons them in his seraglio (a combination of a palace and living quarters for his harem). Selim soon falls in love with Constanze, while Osmin, their coarse, cruel jailer, attempts to woo Blondchen. Belmonte manages to enter the palace in a bid to rescue them. Just as the two couples are about to flee, they are captured by Selim. Rather than kill them, as Osmin suggests, the pasha chooses to set them free, as a way of proving how civilized he is. Diana Damrau (Constanze), Olga Peretyatko (Blondchen), Christoph Strehl (Belmonte), Norbert Ernst (Pedrillo), Franz-Josef Selig (Osmin), Christoph Quest (Selim).