Regieoper to be the most radically shocking to date. The inspiration for Mozart's opera was the overwhelming fascination of Europeans by all things Turkish. Orientalist elements abound in this story of a hero trying to rescue two girls from the clutches of an evil Pasha who has installed them in his harem, Seraglio. Instead of a genteel harem, Bieto has set this Abduction in a modern, garish bordello where men and women engage in extreme acts of sex and brutality. The sets consist mainly of whorehouse accoutrements, the lighting is colored and garish, and the costumes for the most part are
Josephine Lucchese "Rigoletto", Lady Harriet Durham in "Martha", Micaëla in "Carmen", Rosina in "The Barber of Seville", Violetta in "La traviata", and the title role in "Lucia di Lammermoor". In 1925 Lucchese performed Violetta to 's Alfredo at the Academy of Music in the very first performance of the Philadelphia La Scala Opera Company. In 1926 she made her debut with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company (PGOC) as Gilda to Millo Picco's Rigoletto. She later became a resident artist with the PGOC from 1929 until the company's bankruptcy in 1932, performing such roles as Konstanze in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Leïla