Luxuriate on your sofa with Mozart’s Seraglio

‘ADAPTED from’ can often make the heart sink in an age when many artists have the somewhat arrogant notion that art has begun with themselves. But there is still respect in some circles for great art — and it’s not surprising to find it in Irish National Opera’s Seraglio, adapted from Mozart’s sparkling 1782 masterpiece The Abduction from the Seraglio.

And the good news is that you can still see most of it. Irish National Opera has turned the piece into an eight-episode online mini-series, with six episodes still to go (Tuesdays and Thursdays until July 30).

Not a single singer or musician has been in another’s company during the making of the series. The overture from the Irish Chamber Orchestra of 33 musicians has each of them shot in their own homes — mostly in their living rooms — with a final flourish of all 33 in a full-screen shot. That’s the start. There’s a chorus of 16 under Elaine Kelly’s direction, with five solo singers, again singing solitary.

The magic of Caitriona McLaughlin’s concept and overall direction lies in the editing — which makes you able to forget the technical mastery required to create a sense of cohesion.

Indeed, the spirit of the 18th century oozes triumphantly from the singers’ modern dress and sleek living spaces.

Peter Whelan conducts and also plays the villain Pasha Selim (a very fresh-faced and benign-looking villain, mind you), clearly enjoying himself hugely. He has bought the beautiful Konstanze (Claudia Boyle) and her maid Blonde (Sarah Power) from pirates who have abducted them, and has installed them in his seraglio.

Enter Konstanze’s lover Belmonte (Dean Power) and his servant Pedrillo (Andrew Gavin), determined to rescue the women from a fate worse than death. Under Mozart’s romantic eye, they are still safe from the machinations of the Pasha, who merely yearns unfulfilled for Konstanze.

Pedrillo is helping to protect them, as he too has been captured (we’re not told how: this is opera). And he has a foil — the villainous Osmin (Wojtek Gierlach), servant to the Pasha, who naturally has designs on Blonde.

After to-ings and fro-ings, a lot of confrontation and evil machinations, both sets of lovers are of course reunited. But there’s a dose of reality, as before the final embrace, the fellas require reassurance from the lassies that they have been untouched by the evil hands of their captors.

With the chorus members drawn from five Irish counties, and one each from Maryland and Iowa, maestro Peter Whelan from London, and the soloists from Dublin, Glasgow, Munich and Poland, and never meeting outside the virtual world for this production, it’s an achievement that might well have unhinged Mozart.

I’m told the final episodes are still being edited, but the whole production would do quirky credit to a major-budget movie. Ian Dearden of Sound Intermedia is responsible for sound, with video production by Ellen O’Malley of Together Video.

Give yourself a treat — watch it.