Lessons in Laughter

Despite the tremendous variety of approaches that directors have applied in the last quarter century, the intersection of opera and stand-up comedy remains largely unexplored. And perhaps for obvious reasons: stand-up, at its best, occupies a unique place on the border between scripted and improvisatory, while the tolerance for improvisation in opera is limited largely to the ornamentation of baroque arias. The obvious gulf between these two artforms made the new production of Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden something of an improbable success. By pairing comedian Bülent Ceylan with an excellent cast – led by the Konstanze of Adela Zaharia – the evening struck an unexpected balance between the familiar pleasures of Mozart’s music and the infectious laughter of a well-timed comedy routine.

The succ…