Seraglio palace, the other (in the sense of enclosure for wild animals) from Late Latin: "", derived from "serare", to close, which comes from "sera", a door-bar. In the context of the "turquerie" fashion, the seraglio became the subject of works of art, the most famous perhaps being Mozart's Singspiel, "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"). In Montesquieu's "Persian Letters", one of the main characters, a Persian from the city of Isfahan, is described as an occupant of a seraglio. "The Seraglio" may refer specifically to the Topkapı Palace, the residence of the former Ottoman Sultans in
Adina (opera) Adina (opera) Adina is an operatic farsa in one act by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Marchese Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini. The opera develops the popular theme of the "abduction from the seraglio". "Adina" was commissioned in 1818 by Diego Ignazio de Pina Manique, police superintendent of Lisbon and inspector of Portuguese theatres. The plot is very similar to that of Francesco Basili's 1819 opera, "Il califfo e la schiava", for which the libretto was written by Felice Romani, and some passages occur in both librettos - a mystery which has not yet been unravelled. The opera was intended as a