Austria Johann Strauss II, Die Fledermaus: Soloists, Dancers of the Vienna State Ballet, Refrain and Orchestra of Vienna State Opera / Markus Poschner (conductor). Broadcast stay (directed by Jakob Pitzer) from the Vienna State Opera, 31.12.2025. (JPr)
Vienna was in lockdown after I first noticed a 2020 New Yr’s Eve Die Fledermaus from the State Opera and I’ve at all times believed it affected the efficiency significantly and so most likely did deserve my downbeat headline at the moment. Three years on and issues had been significantly better since there was an viewers completely having fun with themselves, which helped to make me take pleasure in Die Fledermaus too, and far enjoyable was had by all once more in 2025.
I’ve written earlier than – and unashamedly write once more – how with any Fledermaus it’s virtually unattainable to not rekindle recollections of previous performances I’ve seen and heard of this completely entertaining work over six many years (!) and people who have appeared in it, akin to Adele Leigh, Hermann Prey, Marilyn Hill Smith, Eric Shilling, Alan Opie … and even Frankie Howerd within the Nineteen Eighties because the non-singing jailer, Frosch. My first Fledermaus was on the Vienna Volksoper – though I can’t actually keep in mind a lot about it – and I’ve seen it there since and likewise in London. How does 2025 with its starry main couple examine? Very extremely I’m happy to report.
The libretto for Johann Strauss II’s operetta was by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée and the plot has its roots in French farce, particularly with almost all the characters being another person for many of it. The rich philanderer Gabriel von Eisenstein has been sentenced to eight days in jail for calling a policeman ‘a jackass’. Nevertheless, his good friend Dr Falke convinces him to spend his final evening of freedom at a ball thrown by Prince Orlofsky, an eccentric Russian who has cash to burn and is determined for a great chuckle. Falke has a hidden agenda, and he’s in search of revenge for a humiliating prank Eisenstein performed on him years earlier than. Falke introduces Eisenstein on the ball as a French marquis and likewise invitations the jail governor Frank (additionally posing as a Frenchman), Eisenstein’s chambermaid Adele (supposedly now hoping to behave within the theatre), and his spouse Rosalinde (pretending to be Hungarian). Rosalinde has been ‘entertaining’ Alfred, a singer, in Eisenstein’s absence and he has been mistakenly taken to jail. In the long run, husband and spouse – who’ve been considerably estranged – are fortunately reconciled and Eisenstein accepts the joke was on him. Vienna is the perfect place to luxuriate within the 3/4 time music from the ‘Waltz King’ and permit the absurdities of the plot to scrub over you.
This manufacturing by Otto Schenk – who sadly died earlier this 12 months at 94 – dates from 1979 and the lavish units (by the late Günther Schneider-Siemssen) and Milena Canonero’s beautiful costumes are all redolent of fin-de-siècle Vienna. It’s a little cluttered at occasions however there’s a beautiful use of a turntable within the second act revealing a luxurious ballroom with a big desk elaborately set for dinner. What is typically a fairly stiffly staged ball, is now a riot of swaying, swirling – drunken or in any other case – figures, and ends with the collapse of a conga line of just about everybody on the stage. This merriment is underscored by Strauss’s Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning) polka!
It’s virtually unattainable to seek out something actually new to say about this splendidly conventional Fledermaus. Whereas I someday adhere to Wagner’s ‘Kinder, macht Neues!’ for each opera and ballet, I’m pleased, on sure events like this, for productions to outlive lengthy after their ‘sell-by date’. This efficiency had some joyous moments and – with sure caveats – ranks as one in all higher ones I’ve seen. Who cares – although some may – that we’re having fun with watching fairly mature, skirt-chasing males, a mega-rich Russian carried out en travesti, and jokes on the expense of the lawyer Dr Blind together with his speech obstacle and sight-impairment identify.
For an excellent Fledermaus – as this was – you want a solid of advantageous singers who’re equally good at comedy and who could also be required to bop properly too! The 2025 solid was not as ‘starry’ as in 1979 which included a number of legendary names (Bernd Weikl, Lucia Popp, Brigitte Fassbaender, Walter Berry, and Edita Gruberová) however with Jonas Kaufmann making his stage debut as Eisenstein and Diana Damrau as Rosalinde they headed a advantageous solid which made the champagne-fuelled shenanigans fizz and that is all that in the end issues. Not solely does a Fledermaus want consummate actor-singers, however they need to even be able to creating precisely the onstage chemistry for its varied couplings (Eisenstein/Rosalinde; Falke/Ida; and jail governor Frank/Adele) as they did right here.
My main concern was Kaufmann as Eisenstein: not that he didn’t wholeheartedly throw himself into the function and was a bundle of power all through. I choose Eisenstein to have complete self-confidence and a transparent lack of conscience, right here Kaufmann cavorted round fairly like a mature pupil at Freshers’ Week, with a advantageous line in exasperation and later an incendiary urge for vengeance when he believed Rosalinde to have been untrue. Kaufmann’s singing after all was elegant, virtually too good. Adrian Eröd’s Falke was suitably conspiratorial and he introduced a suave eloquence to the highpoint of his vocal efficiency, ‘Brüderlein, Brüderlein und Schwesterlein’, in Act II.
The Vienna State Opera not often appears to fail when casting Adele and Ilia Staple was an absolute delight within the function displaying disarmingly straightforward coloratura (notably for her Act II ‘Laughing Track’) and instinctive and energetic performing. Jörg Schneider is one thing of a veteran within the function of Alfred, the lovestruck patsy, and his expertise confirmed. There was some stylish parodic singing from him in all of the tenorial ‘sampling’ that Alfred is given. Notably there was Handel, Mozart and Verdi, with Rosalinde greeted within the last act by him singing Florestan’s ‘O namenlose Freude!’ Jochen Schmeckenbecher appeared much less sleazy than some as Frank, however it’s nonetheless apparent he has an ulterior motive in supporting Adele’s performing plans. (I’ve misplaced rely of the occasions I’ve seen Frank go to sleep in Act III underneath the newspaper together with his cigar burning by it!) Nevertheless, the moments of mock-French between ‘Marquis Renard’ (Eisenstein) and ‘Chevalier Chagrin’ (Frank) had been actually humorous with all of the ‘Can-Can, Can-Can-ing’ and ‘Oui, Oui, Oui-ing’.
It’s Prince Orlofsky who saves Adele from Frank’s advances and Daria Sushkova’s ‘Champagne Track’ was as glowing appropriately. Sushkova impressed because the initially po-faced Orlofsky but laughs uproariously after all of the Act II antics. Diana Damrau capped a advantageous efficiency by making Rosalinde’s well-known ‘Czárdás’ genuinely sound like ‘Klänge der Heimat’ (‘Sounds from house’). In any other case, her efficiency erred on the aspect of being domineering fairly than fascinating and vivacious. It didn’t actually spoil something, although I used to be left slightly unsure how a lot she was in on the joke for many of Act III. Hannah-Theres Weigl was a spirited Ida and, as within the earlier performances, the refrain had been splendidly dedicated and confirmed a terrific power, as did the enthusiastic dancers within the second act. As heard by loudspeakers, I discovered little fault in Markus Poschner’s conducting which had all of the vitality and headlong rush this operetta wants from a rampant overture to the joyful reprise of the ‘Champagne Track’ on the very finish.
Act III was its typical drawn-out affair for somebody not a local German speaker and never au fait with the Austrian political class, although Trump and Putin had been additionally talked about in passing. The English subtitles did not translate a lot of the stand-up routine of in style Austrian-Iranian comedian Michael Niavarani as Frosch. I understood a few of what he was saying and loved a lot of his Slivovitz-fuelled antics, particularly when dropping his keys into the orchestra pit and coming down amongst the musicians to retrieve them. He confronted Markus Poschner earlier than relieving him of his baton and whipping the orchestra into beginning the Carmen Overture.
Jim Pritchard
Featured Picture: Adrian Eröd (Falke), Jonas Kaufmann (Eisenstein) and Daria Sushkova (Orlofsky) © Wiener Staatsoper
Manufacturing:
Manufacturing – Otto Schenk
Revival director – Katharina Strommer
Stage design – Günther Schneider-Siemssen
Costume design – Milena Canonero
Choreography for ‘Unter Donner und Blitz’ – Gerlinde Dill
Refrain grasp – Martin Schebesta
Solid:
Gabriel von Eisenstein – Jonas Kaufmann
Rosalinde – Diana Damrau
Frank – Jochen Schmeckenbecher
Prince Orlofsky – Daria Sushkova
Alfred – Jörg Schneider
Dr Falke – Adrian Eröd
Dr Blind – Lukas Schmidt
Adele – Ilia Staple
Ida – Hannah-Theres Weigl
Frosch – Michael Niavarani
Iwan – Jaroslav Pehal
