. Osmin has
a special motive for disliking Pedrillo, who has forestalled him in the
affections of Blondchen, Constanze's maid; nevertheless he is beguiled
by the wily servant into a drinking bout, and quieted with a harmless
narcotic. This gives the lovers an opportunity for an interview, in
which the details of their flight are arranged. The next night they make
their escape. Belmont gets off safely with Constanze, but Pedrillo and
Blondchen are seen by Osmin before they are clear of the house. The hue
and cry is raised, and both couples are caught and brought back. They
are all condemned to death, but the soft-hearted Pasha is so much
overcome by their fidelity and self-sacrifice that he pardons them and
sends them away in happiness.

Much of 'Die Entfuehrung' is so thoroughly and characteristically
German, that at first sight it may be thought surprising that it should
have succeeded so well in a city like Vienna, which was inclined to look
upon the Singspiel as a barbarian product of Northern Germany. But there
is a reason for this, and it is one which goes to the root of the whole
question of comic opera. Mozart saw that Italian comic operas often
succeeded in spite of miserable libretti, because the entire interest
was concentrated upon the music, and all the rest was forgotten. The
German Singspiel writers made the mistake of letting their music be, for
the most part, purely incidental, and conducting all the dramatic part
of their plots by dialogue. Mozart borrowed the underlying idea of the
opera buffa, applied it to the form of the Singspiel, which he kept
intact, and produced a work which succeeded in revolutionising the
history of German opera. But, apart from the question of form, the music
of 'Die Entfuehrung' is in itself fine enough to be the foundation even
of so imposing a structure as modern German music. The orchestral forces
at Mozart's disposal were on a smaller scale than at Munich; but though
less elaborate than that of 'Idomeneo,' the score of 'Die Entfuehrung' is
full of the tenderest and purest imagination. But the real importance of
the work lies in the vivid power of characterisation, which Mozart here
reveals for the first time in full maturity. It is by the extraordinary
development of this quality that he transcends all other writers for
the stage before or since. It is no exaggeration to say that Mozart's
music reveals the inmost soul of the characters of his opera as plainly
as if they