The form may seem familiar – a feather-light romantic comedy – but Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail is shot through with an emotional and musical core of extraordinary seriousness from the 26 year old composer. And its portrayal of 18th century European attitudes to the meeting of East and West is remarkably insightful.

Listen as Matthew Head, Professor of Music at King’s College London, Matthew Dimmock, Professor of Early Modern Studies at the University of Sussex, and Glyndebourne dramaturg Cori Ellison explain how Mozart both reflects and subverts the 18th century European view of ‘the Orient’.

​Presenter: Katie Derham​​Mozart​ letters read by Peter Marinker

Produced by Katherine Godfrey for Whistledown Productions for Festival 2015.