This year’s Midsummer Mozart Festival brought back “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” which was performed at the beginning of the Festival 34 years ago. Then, as well as now it was conducted by Maestro George Cleve, the founder of the only music festival in North America dedicated exclusively to Mozart. “The Abduction,” whose story line requires a lot of suspended disbelief, was written by Mozart in-between his famous “Idomeneo” and even more famous “The Marriage of Figaro,” and first performed in Vienna in 1782, at the peak of societal obsession with exotic lands and their presumed delights. The current lower-cost “semi-staged” production, presented at the beautifully renovated California Theatre in San Jose, featured a real gem of bass-baritone Jeremy Galyon (Osmin) who made his debut with the San Francisco Opera in 2006, and is scheduled to debut at the Metropolitan Opera in the upcoming season. Other parts were performed by sopranos Christina Major (Konstanze) and Khori Dastoor (Blondchen), tenors Isaac Hurtado (Belmonte) and Matthew O’Neill (Pedrillo), with William Neely in the speaking role of Pasha Selim. The Festival also featured in its other programs international soloists Jon Nakamatsu (piano), Laura Griffiths (oboe), Nikolai Demidenko (piano), Yong Jean Peak (piano) and a guest conductor T.W. Kang. For more information about the Festival and its upcoming events, visit www.midsummermozart.org or email amadeus@midsummermozart.org.
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