The Abduction of Figaro The Abduction of Figaro The Abduction of Figaro is a comic opera, described as "A Simply Grand Opera by P. D. Q. Bach," which is actually the work of composer Peter Schickele. It is a parody of opera in general, and the title is a play on two operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: "The Abduction from the Seraglio" and "The Marriage of Figaro". Those two operas, "Così fan tutte", and "Don Giovanni", as well as Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" are among the core inspirations for the piece. Schickele was commissioned to "discover" this opera by the Minnesota
Vladimir Rosing he directed "Tosca", "The Barber of Seville", and "Faust" in 1947 with an up-and-coming young bass named Jerome Hines. In 1948 the National Opera Association of Los Angeles, under his direction, presented "The Beggar's Opera", "The Abduction from the Seraglio", "Pagliacci", "Rigoletto", "Faust", and "La traviata" with soprano Jean Fenn. Productions of "The Marriage of Figaro", "The Queen of Spades", and "Don Giovanni" with the American Opera Company of Los Angeles completed 1948. For KFI-TV in 1949 Rosing presented 46 weeks of live televised opera sequences on Sunday afternoons which were voted Outstanding Musical Program of Local Origin by the