A problematic Mozart work gets a solid performance

PRINCETON - The music world is full of impossible operas, but this one came as a surprise.

Though Abduction From the Seraglio shows every sign of being part of the Mozart canon - hit arias, a popular overture, numerous recordings - the Opera New Jersey production left you wondering why, and not because of its inadequacies. Sets were handsome and atmospheric in this story of a Spanish nobleman rescuing his girlfriend from a harem, singing was good to excellent, and the New Jersey Symphony under Mark Flint was rock solid. Also, seeing Mozart in a venue as small as McCarter's Berlind Theatre is a pleasure in itself.

The fact that the opera's 227-year history has yielded only 30 documented Philadelphia performances (according to historian Frank Hamilton) speaks to the problems posed by this deceptively modest opera - which at Saturday's Princeton opening resolutely remained its theatrically antiquated self.

Moments of electricity burst forth when one of the female leads (Jennifer Rowley as Konstanze and Rachele Gilmore as Blonde) planted her feet and declared victory over a welter of notes. But the opera's fundamental lack of momentum drives stage directors and singers to acts of desperation. One European production had onstage alter egos for each character. Other opera houses use turntables to create movement that the plot lacks. So when veteran stage director Bernard Uzan's employment of visual activity had minimal purpose, you were more sympathetic than surprised. Most obviously desperate was Mozart's "Rondo Alla Turca," inserted into the opera with belly dancers.

Mozart was working within a now-obscure fad for anything Turkish with an elusive mixture of comedy and menace - and in a singspiel genre that's similar to 1930s Broadway musicals, which means the barely existent plot is carried by spoken dialogue rather than recitatives. For the sake of audience comprehension, the Princeton production had new English-language dialogue written by Matthew Gurewitsch but was sung in German - viable for Mozart's more accomplished The Magic Flute but creating awkward, pace-killing transitions in Abduction.

Matthew Lau's portrayal of Osmin, the comic bad guy, was quite well sung but full of such broadly drawn comic business that the laughs cost him a coherent characterization. In the leading tenor role of Belmonte, Scott Ramsay navigated vocal lines reasonably well but with little vocal substance in the parts of his upper range that should deliver thrills. Too bad the role of Pedrillo, which is mostly dialogue at first, made you wait to hear Aaron Pegram's more promising voice.

What went particularly right? Rowley's mid-weight lyric soprano seemed a bit heavy for Konstanze's intricate music, but hearing a voice of that size move so quickly had something of a Joan Sutherland effect. Gilmore's Blonde, also well sung, was a model of inhabiting a generic character type, which comes down to projecting as much inner charm as possible.

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Abduction From the Seraglio

Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mark Flint, conductor; Bernard Uzan, stage director.

Cast: Scott Ramsay (Belmonte),

Matthew Lau (Osmin),

Aaron Pegram (Pedrillo),

Jennifer Rowley (Konstanze),

Ray Menard (Pasha Selim),

Rachele Gilmore (Blonde).

Set design by Robert Little. Costumes by Patricia A. Hibbert. Performances: Thursday, Sunday, and July 24 at the Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton

Tickets: www.opera-nj.org or 609-258-2787.