I was surprised that it took me this long to put this clip up. This is one of my favorite performances of one of my favorite light Mozart works. Taking advantage of the Janissary vogue, Mozart's Abduction is as beautiful and fun today as the day he wrote it. Here we hear the end of Osmin's rage aria, a brilliant work with great subtlety and wit. This singspiel is the main subject of one of Mozart's most famous letters: the September 26, 1781 letter to Leopold. Among the many wonderful insights about the work, we find this passage about this month's classical clip:

   "I have sent you only the beginning and the end of the aria, I think it will prove to be very effective--for Osmin's anger will be rendered comical by the use of Turkish Music.--In composing the aria I made Fischer's beautiful deep tones really glisten, in spite of that Salzberger Midas,--The passage Therefore, by the beard of the Prophet, etc., is, to be sure, in the same tempo, but with quick notes--and as his anger increases more and more, the allegro assai--which comes just when one thinks the aria is over--will produce an excellent Effect because it is in a different tempo and in a different key. A person who gets into such a violent rage transgresses every order, moderation, and limit; he no longer knows himself.--In the same way the Music must no longer know itself--but because passions, violent or not, must never be expressed to the point of disgust, and Music must never offend the ear, even in the most horrendous situations, but must always be pleasing, in other words remain Music, I have not chosen a tone foreign to f, the key of the aria, but one that is friendly to it, not however its nearest relative in D minor, but the more remote A minor."*

* translation by Robert Spaethling, from his wonderful new (2006) Norton paperback edition of Mozart's letters.