The German libretto is by Gottlieb Stephanie, based on Christoph Friedrich Bretzner's Belmont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

The plot concerns the attempt of the hero Belmonte, assisted by his servant Pedrillo, to rescue his beloved Constanze from the seraglio of Pasha Selim.

The opera loosely refers to the practice of the North African Barbary corsairs, who operated primarily in the western Mediterranean, of hijacking ships belonging to Christian states.

The Emperor had set up the company to perform works in the German language (as opposed to the Italian opera style widely popular in Vienna).

Stephanie complied by preparing an altered version of an earlier work Belmont und Constanze, oder Die Entführung aus dem Serail without attributing or seeking permission from its original author Christoph Friedrich Bretzner.

An opera is sure of success when the plot is well worked out, the words written solely for the music and not shoved in here and there to suit some miserable rhyme ...

The best thing of all is when a good composer, who understands the stage and is talented enough to make sound suggestions, meets an able poet, that true phoenix;[8] in that case, no fears need be entertained as to the applause – even of the ignorant.

[9]It would seem that something along these lines did happen—that is, Mozart decided to play a major role in the shaping of the libretto, insisting that Stephanie make changes for dramatic and musical effect.

[12] Die Entführung aus dem Serail is in the genre of "Singspiel", thus the music lacks recitatives and consists entirely of set numbers.

[13] Die Entführung is lighthearted and frequently comic, with little of the deep character exploration or darker feelings found in Mozart's later operas.

[14] The opera was inspired by a contemporary interest in the exotic culture of the Ottoman Empire, a nation which had only recently ceased to be a military threat to Austria.

Osmin's act 3 aria "O, wie will ich triumphieren" includes characteristic 18th century coloratura passage work, and twice goes down to a low D (D2), one of the lowest notes demanded of any voice in opera.

[20] Perhaps the most famous aria in the opera is the long and elaborate "Martern aller Arten" ("Tortures of all kinds") for Konstanze, an outstanding challenge for sopranos.

[21] The virtuosity of these roles is perhaps attributable to the fact that when he took up the task of composing the opera, Mozart already knew the outstanding reputations of the singers for whom he was writing, and he tailored the arias to their strengths.

[27]Although the opera greatly raised Mozart's standing with the public as a composer, it did not make him rich: he was paid a flat fee of 100 Imperial ducats (about 450 florins) for his work, and made no profits from the many subsequent performances.

[28] The opera reached Paris in November 1801, when Frédéric Blasius conducted Ellmenreich's company in performances at the Théâtre de la Gaîté.

"[38] The anecdote, which is often repeated, is considered by some scholars to unfairly give the Emperor a bad reputation concerning both his musical abilities and his appreciation and support of Mozart.

[39] The singers perform with a Classical-era orchestra: pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, a set of two timpani, and strings.

[43] The four musicians who played the "Turkish" instruments remain anonymous, though it is known that they were recruited for this purpose by one Franz Tyron, Kapellmeister of the Austrian Second Field Artillery Regiment.

[44] After a lively overture Belmonte enters, looking for his betrothed, Konstanze, who, with her English servant, Blonde, has fallen into the hands of pirates and been sold to Pasha Selim (Aria: "Hier soll ich dich denn sehen" – "Here surely I must find her").

[46] Osmin, the Pasha's bad-tempered servant, comes to pluck figs in the garden and contemptuously ignores Belmonte's questions (Aria: "Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden" – "You may think, you've found a maiden").

Pedrillo enters and Osmin rages at him, vowing to get him tortured and killed in many different ways (Aria: "Solche hergelaufne Laffen" – "These young men who go a-spying").

Konstanze joins Belmonte who declares his love (Aria: "Wenn der Freude Tränen fließen" – "When tears of joy flow").

Belmonte pleads for their lives and tells Pasha Selim that his father is a Spanish Grandee and Governor of Oran, named Lostados, and will pay a generous ransom.

O Qual der Seele.... Weh, du soltest für mich sterben" – "What dreadful fate conspires against us.... Woe, you will die because of me").

All are set at liberty – much to the dismay of Osmin (Finale: "Nie werd' ich deine Huld verkennen" – "Your noble mercy passes measure").

The Australian Broadcasting Commission made a TV production in 1961 as the English-language The Abduction from the Seraglio, using outdoor filming in addition to the stage setting.

[48] The American post-modernist writer Donald Barthelme wrote a surreal comic short story entitled "The Abduction from the Seraglio" (published in The New Yorker in January 1978,[49] collected in Great Days, Farrar, Strous & Giroux 1979, and in Sixty Stories, 1981) in which Belmonte, as narrator, is reconfigured into a cowboy sculptor (whose arias are Country & Western songs), Constanze into his ex-lover, a counter-culture free spirit seduced by the Pasha, who in turn is a Plymouth automobile dealer worth five million dollars a year.