It’s been a while since a recording of this opera has appeared and this one seems to have been made in conjunction with a Turkish-British film called Mozart in Turkey. Whatever the circumstances, there are some nice moments here. Charles Mackerras’ approach is somewhere right of William Christie’s airy, original-instrument performance on Erato and to the left of some older-fashioned readings, such as Georg Solti’s on Decca. Mackerras’ band plays modern instruments but the touch is very light and tempos are fleet; appoggiaturas are welcomely present. Furthermore, he pares the dialogue to a minimum and so the show goes by without any tedium. You’ll find no abnormal emphases here. The accompanying notes tell us that the bass drum is played in an authentic Turkish style, the cymbals are small, and the triangles have rings around their perimeter, and something called a “Jingling Johnny” is employed in exactly the same manner as we would find in a Turkish army band today. This may effect your choice of recordings; it does nothing for me.
All of the arias are given in their longer versions in the body of the opera (Mozart cut many bars of Blonde’s, Konstanze’s, and Belmonte’s music to spare the singers), except for Belmonte’s “Wenn der Freude…” which is added as an appendix. The singing is a mixed bag. While there are no real duds, one might argue with the otherwise unknown Turkish soprano Yelda Kodalli’s Konstanze as being tonally and dramatically undistinguished, trill-free, too light, and not always exactly in tune; but her singing is always spirited (she’s a true coloratura who seems to specialize in Mozart’s Queen of the Night). Paul Groves makes a classy Belmonte, dispatching his difficult music with elegance (if not quite perfect ease). He is almost in Ian Bostridge’s league (Erato) and is Kurt Streit’s (Sony) equal. Désirée Rancatore’s Blonde is as good as any and Lynton Atkinson copes amazingly well with Pedrillo’s helden-lyrische-tenor’s music. Peter Rose’s voice is far from the basso profundo that always pleases in the role of Osmin, but he has all the notes and all the attitude without ever resorting to vulgarity. Oliver Tobias speaks the Pasha’s lines with dramatic thrust. Given the options, I’d go with Christie or Weil (not to mention Solti), but Konstanze aside–as she can be–this is far from bad.
