Opera Background

Background Topics Related to Die Entführung aus dem Serail

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE WEST

At the beginning of the 17^th century the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful state in the world, centered in what is now Turkey and stretching from southern Hungary to Jerusalem, to Mecca, to Cairo, to the easternmost frontier in Algeria. The Ottomans’ ambitions extended all the way to Austria; they besieged Vienna first in 1529, then again in 1683. At its height, the Ottoman Empire was famed for its strong, efficient central government, military prowess, and extraordinary wealth. However, the 1600s marked the beginning of a long, slow decline that would eventually lead to the dissolution of the Empire 300 years later, after World War I.

The Ottomans’ early might, power, and wealth was based on continuous conquest. By the seventeenth century the Empire had reached its largest historical size, and new conquests had practically slowed to a halt. Without new lands the Empire faced diminished funds, manpower, and confidence. Ottoman leaders mounted the second siege of Vienna, in 1683, in hopes that a victory might restore the Empire to its full glory. Instead the Ottoman army was routed by a coalition of European forces. The failure of the siege was one of the first serious signals to the outside world that the Empire’s might was waning. The botched siege of Vienna was followed by a series of other Ottoman defeats, including the Austrian conquest of Hungary. In 1699 the Treaty of Karlowitz brought peace to the Empire’s northwestern borders—in exchange for Balkan peninsula territory that had long been under Ottoman control. By Mozart’s time the Ottomans ("Turks") were no longer a serious threat to the Viennese-- but were still a recent memory.

JANISSARIES

The Janissaries were an elite force of guards, originally the Sultan’s personal infantry. Under Ottoman law Christian communities, chiefly in the Balkans, had to give up a number of boys between the ages of 8 and 15. The youths that displayed the most strength and intelligence were selected by the sultan to enter the palace school, where they were converted to Islam and given a superb classical education in languages, literature, history, and military and social arts. Those students who did best at the palace school were placed in the highest and most powerful government posts in the Empire, where they were free to rise as far as their ambition and talent took them. The boys who did not enter the palace school were converted to Islam, given rigorous military training, and fully immersed in Turkish folk culture. They became the Janissaries, the sultan’s elite military corps. Janissaries’ lives were dedicated to military service: they lived in barracks together, and could not own property, marry, or do any other kind of work. They were legendary for their military prowess, as well as the unique percussive music they played during battle.

JANISSARY MUSIC

The Viennese probably heard Janissary bands during the 1683 siege of Vienna, and must have been impressed by their insistent percussive power. Janissary bands were primarily composed of percussion instruments—drums of various pitches, tambourines, bells, triangles, cymbals, and Turkish crescents. 18^th century German musicologist Christian Schubart once said of Janissary music: "No other genre of music requires so firm, decided and overpoweringly predominant a beat. The first beat of each bar is so strongly marked with a new and manly accent that it is virtually impossible to get out of step."

In the 1820s the King of Poland was given a complete Janissary band by the Ottoman sultan. Soon European monarchs from Russia to Britain were scrambling for their own Janissary bands for use in military parades. Today Janissary instruments are still integral parts of most European military bands. In fact, the Janissary band is the ancestor of the modern symphony orchestra’s percussion section, which features drums, cymbals, and triangles with janissary roots.

Composers’ efforts to incorporate the percussive sounds of the Janissary bands—chiefly to evoke local color in Turkish-inspired music—resulted in a recognizable "Turkish style" during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. This style usually consisted of a 2/4 march with a tonic pedal, lots of percussion, a melody peppered with dissonant grace notes, and simple harmonies. In fact, "Turkish effects" became so popular during Mozart’s day that piano makers responded to the fad by equipping special pianos with built-in bells, tambourines, cymbals, bass drums, and other noise-makers. The Janissary chorus in Die Entführung is a great example of the Turkish Style.

TURKISH FAD IN EUROPE

After the siege of Vienna in 1683 the figure of the Turk became popular throughout Europe. Europeans were fascinated with what they imagined to be Turkish culture: harems, exotic clothes, water pipes, and cruel tortures. Turkish costume was a popular choice at masked balls, and Turkish characters cropped up in all sorts of plays and operas. Die Entführung aus dem Serail came on the heels of several other popular "Turkish" plays and operas from which playwright Bretzner and librettist Gottlieb Stephanie the younger probably borrowed characters and plot lines. For instance, The Sultan, or A Peep into the Seraglio featured a tyrannical keeper of the harem named Osmin and an English slave girl character much like Blonde. La Schiava Liberata featured a Turkish character named Selim who is holding two European women captive.

SINGSPIEL

In the Austria of Mozart’s day, the term Singspiel was used as the German equivalent of "Opera." It is worth noting that Die Entführung aus dem Serail was written for Joseph II’s newly established National Singspiel, which was created to encourage the performance of German opera--despite the Viennese preference for Italian opera. It was not until the early 19^th century that Singspiel began to be used as a term for shorter, more light-hearted works.

Today the term Singspiel designates a genre of German opera that combines songs with spoken dialogue. Much like operetta, Singspiel plots tend to be comic or heroic, and the Singspiel form itself is considered more vernacular and popular than through-composed opera. Die Entführung aus dem Serail is a singspiel, as is Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Beethoven’s Fidelio is another work that is commonly—although not properly—regarded as a singspiel.

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