THE SONGBIRD: Regula Mühlemann was born in Switzerland in 1989. She graduated with a Masters degree from the Academy of Music in Lucerne in 2010 and made her first appearances there as Barbarina, Blonde, and Papagena. She was a finalist of the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Roles across Europe have included Euridice in Paris, Gilda in Basel, Donna Fiorilla in Hamburg, Adina in Vienna, Juliette in Lucerne, Gretel in Turin, Blonde in Naples, Serpetta in Berlin, Susanna in Geneva, Elisa in Barcelona, Marzelline in Baden-Baden, and Despina in Venice. She is also busy with concert and recital appearances singing mostly Mozart, Handel, Schumann, Bach, and Haydn, and has made several commercial recordings.
THE MUSIC: Mozart's opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" (which I refer to in its English translation) premiered in Vienna in 1782, with Mozart himself conducting. It is considered the best work of the German "Singspiel" format: an opera with spoken dialogue between musical set pieces instead of musical recitatives. Konstanze was written for one of Vienna's star sopranos, Caterina Cavalieri. Her third aria is the monumental "Martern aller arten," acknowledged widely as one of the most challenging arias in the coloratura repertoire. It's long and it's elaborate, with relentless fiery coloratura meant to convey Konstanze's determination to defy the will of her captor, the Pasha Selim, and to plead for her release.