Gottfried van Swieten and income following the earlier completion of their Grand Tour of Europe. According to Mozart's father Leopold, Van Swieten was involved in the early planning of Wolfgang's ill-fated opera "La Finta Semplice" (the opera was later blocked by intrigues, and could be performed only in Salzburg). In 1781, shortly after Mozart had moved to Vienna, van Swieten met him again: at the salon of Countess Thun, Mozart played extracts from his recent opera Idomeneo, with van Swieten and other important officials in the audience; this event helped instigate Mozart's commission for the opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio", his first
Seraglio Istanbul. The term can also refer to other traditional Turkish palaces—every imperial prince had his own—and other grand houses built around courtyards. In modern Italian the word is spelled "serraglio". It may refer to a wall or structure for containment, for example of caged wild animals; or for defence, such as the Serraglio of Villafranca di Verona, a defensive wall built by the Scaligeri. The ghettoes established in many Italian cities following the promulgation by Pope Paul IV in 1555 of the papal bull "Cum nimis absurdum" were initially called "serraglio degli ebrei", "enclosure of the Jews". The Seraglio is