Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail…
July 1782 CE
The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie.
The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim.
The company that first sponsored the opera was the Nationalsingspiel ("national Singspiel"), a pet project (1778–1783) of the Austrian emperor Joseph II.
The Emperor had set up the company to perform works in the German language (as opposed to the Italian opera style widely popular in Vienna).
This project will ultimately be given up as a failure, but along the way it produces a number of successes, mostly a series of translated works.
Mozart's opera emerges as its outstanding original success.