Victorian Opera’s Abduction

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https://www.palaistheatre.com.au/all-events/abduction-tickets-ae1527535

Date Reviewed: 13/08/2025

Purists may have furrowed their brows at the Victorian Opera’s opening night of Abduction, based on Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, at St Kilda’s Palais Theatre. 

This isn't your grandmother's Mozart. But for those willing to embrace risk, director Constantine Costi’s provocative reimagining plunges into seductive theatricality and musical bravado.

Visually, it’s intoxicating. The moment you enter the auditorium, you’re drenched in crimson — velvet drapes, bellhop-red costumes, thigh-high patent boots. The stage pulses with a glowing heart motif, beckoning us into its cult-like temple of temptation.

Set and costume designers Matilda Woodroofe and Nathan Burmeister rise to the occasion as they conjure a mash-up of The Handmaid’s Tale and Moulin Rouge, with Wes Anderson’s retro symmetry and bellboy whimsy. The ensemble slink at the stage’s edges like a living frieze of glamour and menace. Art in motion.

Like the set and costumes, the plot has been rewired. Here, Konstanze (award-winning soprano Cleo Lee-McGowan) and Blonde (Katherine Allen, fresh from her Green Room Award for Candide) aren’t prisoners captured by pirates but are adventurous friends chasing thrills. 

Osmin, played by bass Luke Stoker, whose career has taken him from Salzburg to Paris, Cologne to Leipzig, swaps the stern Ottoman guard for flamboyant cowboy attire and a homoerotic swagger (despite pursuing Blonde).

Most striking of all is the transformation of the Pasha from a Turkish overlord into a gender-fluid fashion icon and cult leader. Given Costi’s Greek Cypriot roots and the political situation on the divided Turkish-occupied island of his heritage, the shift away from the opera’s original Ottoman setting feels loaded — an artistic choice that exchanges colonial exoticism for a critique of charisma, consumerism, and the dangerous allure of devotion.

Lyndon Watts, a multidisciplinary artist as comfortable on Australian Fashion Week runways as on a theatre stage. This is obvious in his embodiment of the sleek and stylish Pasha with hypnotic presence — a deity of dark desire, every gesture charged with commanding menace. 

Belmonte, sung by American-born tenor Kyle Stegall, a specialist in rare repertoire, was a charming blend of vocal elegance and comic elasticity. Douglas Kelly’s Pedrillo, already crowned with a 2025 Green Room Award, bounced between blokey Aussie humour (“my dad works at PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC”) and tender sincerity, earning genuine warmth from the audience.

For all its provocation, the music remains true to the original. Conductor Chad Kelly and Orchestra Victoria deliver Mozart’s score with precision and brightness, letting the “vocal fireworks” sparkle. The cast’s comic timing and emotional nuance balance the spectacle: believable vulnerability in the lovers, delicious excess from the cult entourage.

What would Mozart think? Given his playful wit, love of theatricality, and tendency toward cheeky irreverence, it’s tempting to think that a modern-day Mozart might have adored this riotous remix filled with modernisms e.g. Aldi ladders, allusions to crossfit, and a lot of fun. Let's not forget, this was a composer who thrived on collaboration, delighted in absurdity, and never shied away from poking fun at the conventions of his day.

Victorian Opera’s Abduction may not be for the faint-hearted, but it is a feast for the senses — and perhaps, somewhere, Mozart is raising a glass, grinning at the audacity of it all.

Highlights:

• The lush, immersive crimson set and costumes — a velvet-and-patent-red fever dream.
  
• The moment the main characters step into the glowing, throbbing heart at centre stage.
  
• Mozart’s score delivered with crisp precision and sparkling “vocal fireworks” under Chad Kelly’s baton.
  
• Lyndon Watts’ gender-fluid, magnetic Pasha — every movement dripping with style and menace.
  
• Experiencing the grandeur of the historic Palais Theatre, with its opulent Art Deco architecture adding extra drama before the curtain even rises.

Who it’s for:

• Opera lovers open to bold, irreverent reinterpretations. Especially good for those who have seen the original so they can play 'spot the difference', but not good for purists who like works to rely on original intent.
• Theatre-goers who appreciate visual spectacle with a subversive twist.
  
• Fans of Moulin Rouge, The Handmaid’s Tale, or Wes Anderson’s aesthetic who are curious about opera.
  
• Anyone intrigued by the idea of Mozart meeting fashion runway decadence in a cult-like fantasy world.
  

Performances are at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda, on Thursday 14 August and Saturday 16 August, 7:30pm.

If we’ve piqued your interest but aren’t sure whether this is a risk worth the full splurge, dip your toes with 30% off ticket purchases for this performance offered to On the House members. And sign up to see other performances including complimentary tickets. 

Reviewed by Mary Sinanidis