Music with Ease > Classical Music > Concert Guide: Classical Era > Overture to "The Elopement from the Seraglio" - Mozart

The overture to "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ("The Elopment from the Seraglio"), a comic opera, was first performed in Vienna in 1782. It opens with the first theme in the violins and cellos, immediately taken up in full orchestra. Repetition lads to a new theme followed by the three fantasia. This leads to an episode, based upon the first aria in the opera ("Hier soll ich dich denn sehen, Constanze") which is presented with elaborate and beautiful embellishments, and is followed by the third part of the overture, treated in the regular manner and coming to a tranquil close.