THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO

1911. Konstanze – accompanied by her assistant Blonde and the cameraman Pedrillo – travels to the Sahara of North Africa to take breathtaking pictures of the desert and wandering beduine tribes. The foreigners are captured by local nomads who want to extort a high ransom. Bassa Selim, military governor of part of the Ottoman Empire, redeems the hostages and takes them to his palace where Konstanze, Blonde and Pedrillo live more or less under house arrest … until the day that Belmonte, Konstanze's fiancé, sets out on a daring manoeuvre to free the prisoners.

The creative team of De Carpentries/Van Hercke leaves its stage imprint yet again with a musical work by Mozart. Inspired by female adventurers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, François de Carpentries does not stage the contrast between a European value system and a fantasy-orientalism, but looks into a time of change and upswing; into a world in which, not only courageous women but also love begin to emancipate themselves from social constraints.