Description
'Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail' (Abduction from the Seraglio) was Mozart's first important success. The libretto by Johann Gottlieb Stephanie features another popular topic in later eighteenth-century drama - the rescue of an abducted heroine. In this instance, she is a lady of noble Spanish birth who has been captured by Barbary pirates and sold into the captivity of the Pasha Selim, who has fallen in love with her. In the end, she is rescued by her beloved, Belmonte, with the assistance of his servant, Pedrillo. This edition of the libretto is in the orginal German with an English translation.