Fledermaus, Die (The Bat)

Premièred on 5 April 1874 in Vienna, and part of the regular operetta repertoire ever since, Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus has been described as “the apotheosis of Viennese operetta”, and is one of the best-loved operettas ever written. The story begins with Gabriel von Eisenstein, who has been sentenced to eight days in prison for insulting an official. Adele, Eisenstein’s maid, receives a letter inviting her to Prince Orlofsky’s ball. She pretends the letter says that her aunt is very sick, and asks for a leave of absence. Falke, Eisenstein’s friend, arrives to invite him to the ball. Eisenstein bids farewell to Adele and his wife Rosalinde, pretending he is going to prison, but really intending to postpone jail for one day and have fun at the ball. After Eisenstein leaves, Rosalinde is visited by her lover, Alfred. Frank, the governor of the prison, arrives to take Eisenstein to jail, and finds Alfred instead. In order not to compromise Rosalinde, Alfred agrees to pretend to be Eisenstein and to accompany Frank. At the ball, it turns out that Falke, with Prince Orlofsky’s permission, is orchestrating the ball as a way of getting revenge on Eisenstein, who once abandoned a drunken Falke dressed as a bat in the center of town, exposing him to ridicule the next day. As part of his scheme, Falke has invited Frank, Adele, and Rosalinde to the ball as well…Eisenstein is introduced to Adele, but is confused as to who she really is because of her striking resemblance to his maid. Then Falke introduces the disguised Rosalinde to Eisenstein and she succeeds in extracting a valuable watch from her husband’s pocket, something which she can use in the future as evidence of his impropriety. The next morning they all find themselves at the prison where the confusion increases and is compounded by the jailer, Frosch, who has profited by the absence of the prison director to become gloriously drunk….

Instrumentation
2(2 dbl picc).2.2.2. / 4.2.3.0. / timp / perc / hp / str

Format
F/S V/S C/S Lib (O/S as original)

Publisher
JW