JOHANN STRAUSS AND THE GENESIS OF DIE FLEDERMAUS It is somewhat ironic that Die Fledermaus, the crowning glory of Viennese Operetta got off to an unfortunate start. The Viennese public, drained of resources by an economic crash, had its mind on tomorrow’s meal rather than tonight’s theatre visit. There was a limited number of well-heeled people amongst Vienna’s music lovers, only enough to fill the Theatre an der Wien for sixteen performances in April 1874. And yet Die Fledermaus was the perfect tonic for escapist Vienna. The refrain lingered and reverberated so that one found it difficult to return to reality. Laughter pervades the entire work, reaching its zenith in the rippling, teasing laugh cascades of Adele’s ‘My dear Marquis’. Hypocrisy, always a main ingredient in such a comedy of mistaken identities is abundant, beginning with the quasi heartrending duet of Rosalinda and her husband while she eagerly awaits his departure so that she can receive her lover- ‘ And must I live eight long days abandoned here alone’. This duet is surpassed by another- a staccato, pianissimo anticipation of extramarital joy barely suppressed in the pool of crocodile’s tears; a high moment of musical comedy ‘ Ah woe is me’.
The musical champagne truly sparkles in the Act 1 finale ‘ drinking song’ as it does in the second act with its spectacular reception and ball at the palace of Prince Orlofsky.
Offering, a Csardas, Arias, and a Ballet. In this production, TWODS have decided to replace Strauss’s ballet music with the Thunder and Lightning Polka, a perfect expression of musical bubbly!
Then comes the Fledermaus Waltz, perhaps the highlight of the operetta. Of the nearly six hundred dances which Johann had conjured up, perhaps only the Blue Danube is as clearly identifiable as the Fledermaus Waltz. However, even the spell cast by this waltz cannot survive the unavoidable awakening to reality as the following scenes bring comic remorse, anger and tears, partially broken by Adele’s sparkling ‘ Audition song’. A final trio, worthy of Mozart or the unrelated Richard Strauss reveals the playful innocence of all parties, and a mock refrain blaming that ‘bubbly evil’, champagne, brings the comedy of errors to its brilliant Finale.  No one took the defeat of the Viennese Premiere more lightly than Johann himself. Rome, Berlin, Hamburg and Paris were soon whistling, singing and dancing Fledermaus in the streets. No less a man than Gustav Mahler idolised the work, conducting its first evening performance in Hamburg during 1894. Since the Strauss work had only been performed in the afternoon, its promotion to evening material put it in the realm of Mozart, Donizetti and Rossini. Fledermaus has undergone a wealth of arrangements and transformations, including Broadway revamps and even a Hollywood film. Its universal popularity is best summed up by a critic at the first performance:-
‘ Strauss’s music invades the ear and steams through the blood into the legs and even the most lethargic man in the theatre unknowingly begins to nod his head, rock his body, tap his feet’.
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