Harem of European women forcibly taken into Oriental harems—evident for example in the Mozart opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ("The Abduction from the Seraglio") concerning the attempt of the hero Belmonte to rescue his beloved Konstanze from the "seraglio"/harem of the Pasha Selim; or in Voltaire's "Candide", in chapter 12 of which the old woman relates her experiences of being sold into harems across the Ottoman Empire. Much of Verdi's opera "Il corsaro" takes place in the harem of the Pasha Seid—where Gulnara, the Pasha's favorite, chafes at life in the harem, and longs for freedom and true love. Eventually
Renée Doria Renée Doria Renée Doria (born 13 February 1921) is a French opera singer, one of the leading lyric coloratura sopranos of her era in France. Born Renée Dumazert in Perpignan, France, after a thorough musical training (piano, solfege, harmony) she turned to vocal study with Umberto Valdarmini, and made her singing debut in concert at the age of 18. Her official operatic debut took place in 1942, in Marseille, as Rosina in "Il barbiere di Siviglia". After singing Constance in "The Abduction from the Seraglio" in Cannes under Reynaldo Hahn, and the three heroines (Olympia, Giulietta, Antonia) in "Les contes