Vancouver Opera presents Die Fledermaus for four performances only at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre from February 28 – March 8, 2015.
In high society Vienna every night is party night! Lighthearted, romantic, and wickedly funny, Die Fledermaus has the power to lift our spirits. Strauss’s melody-filled music, especially his famous waltzes, is effervescent and intoxicating. Be prepared to laugh! Featuring soprano Joyce El-Khoury as Rosalinde, tenor Roger Honeywell as Gabriel von Eisenstein, and Christopher Gaze as the tipsy jailer, Frosch.
The Story, in brief
In high society Vienna every night is party night! At a lavish soirée hosted by Prince Orlovsky, the champagne flows, fuelling an elaborate trick by the dapper Dr. Falke to repay his friend Gabriel von Eisenstein for having abandoned him one night, dressed as a bat. Eisenstein’s maid, Adele, appears as the exotic “Miss Olga”. The prison governor, Frank, is the “Chevalier Chagrin”. And Eisenstein’s wife, Rosalinde, in disguise as a mysterious Hungarian countess, bamboozles him into trying to seduce her. The evening winds down at the city jail, where true identities are revealed, transgressions are forgiven, and everyone raises one more glass of champagne.
Lighthearted, romantic, and wickedly funny, Die Fledermaus has the power to lift our spirits. Strauss’s melody-filled music, especially his famous waltzes, is effervescent and intoxicating. Be prepared to laugh!
BACKGROUND
Johann Jr. (1825-1899) was the second Strauss to carry the mantle “Waltz King.” His father (1804-1849), along with another Viennese composer and orchestra leader, Joseph Lanner, developed what became universally and instantly recognizable as the Viennese waltz. Strauss father and son presided over a concert and dance scene in Vienna almost beyond imagining today: ballrooms that dotted the city were regularly crammed with dance-mad citizens swirling to the highly infectious music and idolizing the charismatic bandmasters.
In his highly successful career, Strauss Jr. wrote hundreds of waltzes and other dances before his first wife, Jetty, prodded him into writing for the operatic stage. Die Fledermaus was by far his most successful effort.
In this work, Strauss’s irresistible music masks a biting critique of Viennese society – a critique that caused something of a scandal at the time of its premiere in 1874. Bored and rich Prince Orlovsky, for example, is a stark representation of the decadent upper classes of the time. But this theme is not dominant. However dishonest or duplicitous the characters, their actions are propelled by the most lighthearted and carefree music, powerful in its ability to lift our spirits and to make us laugh.
Single tickets are available from the Vancouver Opera Ticket Centre, online, or by phone at 604-683-0222.
Groups: For special pricing for groups of ten or more, call 604-683-0222.
