Fledermaus, 2009
Photo: J. Reeder
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Die Fledermaus
By Johann Strauss, Jr.
Libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée
Based on Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy’s Le Réveillon
Place: Vienna
Time: Late nineteenth century
Act 1) A room in Eisenstein’s house.
Through the window of the Eisenstein home floats a tenor’s serenade, unnoticed by Rosalinde, the intended target. Adele, the Eisensteins’ maid, reads a letter from her sister Ida inviting her to a ball that evening at the villa of Prince Orlofsky, a rich young Russian aristocrat. She asks Rosalinde for the evening off in order “to visit a sick aunt.” Rosalinde is not able to grant her request, however, because her husband is due to begin a short prison sentence that evening. He must spend five days in jail for insulting an official. Alfred is now revealed as the off-stage voice. He is an operatic tenor, a singing teacher, and an erstwhile lover of Rosalinde. He wants a rendezvous with Rosalinde, who puts up no objection; he is persuaded to leave for the moment and asked to return after Eisenstein has gone to jail. He leaves just before Eisenstein storms in with his lawyer, Doctor Blind. The prison sentence has been reconsidered and three days have been added. Eisenstein blames the lawyer for this and orders him out of the house.
Doctor Falke enters and persuades Eisenstein not to report to the prison that evening but to attend Prince Orlofsky’s party instead. Eisenstein thinks this a grand idea but does not tell his wife. Adele, Rosalinde, and Eisenstein sing a trio, each pretending a regret none of them feels. Rosalinde sees Eisenstein leave the house in evening dress and is bewildered. As she is expecting Alfred, she decides to give Adele the evening off after all. Adele hurries off to the party wearing one of her mistress’s ball gowns. Alfred arrives and makes himself comfortable in one of Eisenstein’s dressing gowns. Frank, the governor of the prison, appears. He has come in person to take Eisenstein to jail. In order not to cause a scandal, Rosalinde is obliged to pretend he is her husband and Alfred is led off to prison, sustained by a lingering kiss from Rosalinde.
Act 2) The Ball at Prince Orlofsky’s Villa
Orlofsky’s guests are praising his famous hospitality. Adele meets her sister Ida. Falke introduces Adele to Orlofsky as “Miss Olga” an actress, but Orlofsky knows that the two sisters, as well as others, are involved in a plot that Falke has hatched in order to revenge himself on Eisenstein for a trick he had played on him three years earlier. After a masked ball, Eisenstein exposed Falke to public humiliation by abandoning him when he was drunk and dressed as a bat, a “Fledermaus.” Now Falke in turn wants to cause him public humiliation.
Eisenstein appears and is announced as the French marquis Renard (the French word for “fox”). He comes close to recognizing his wife’s maid, Adele, but she as Miss Olga skillfully deceives him, in her famous “Laughing Song.” Orlofsky, rich but bored, commands his guests to make merry. When Frank, the prison governor, arrives and is introduced as the Chevalier Chagrin he is taken to his fellow “countryman,” Renard. The two attempt to hold a conversation in schoolboy French. At last Rosalinde arrives, invited by Falke to observe how her husband is serving his prison sentence. She is disguised as a Hungarian countess; Eisenstein, who has been fliritng outrageously with the ladies at the party, showing them his famous repeater watch, immediately begins to court her. Rosalinde pockets the gold watch, intending to keep it as incriminating evidence.
As the guests consume more and more champagne, the atmosphere at the party becomes more abandoned. The guests attempt to get the Countess to take off her mask, but Rosalinde shows her “Hungarian” heritage by dancing and singing a fiery Czárdás. The guests ask Falke to tell them the story of the bat and Eisenstein triumphantly boasts of how several years ago, after a masked ball, he abandoned Falke to make his way home alone, dressed as a bat. As the guests sit down to supper, Orlofsky proposes a toast to champagne, king of wines, and Falke, singing a slow sentimental waltz, proposes that everyone drink to friendship. Everyone joins in dancing a fast waltz, the one heard already in the overture, which has become known as the “Fledermaus Waltz.” Famous soloists from the Vienna Opera perform for the guests. The clock strikes six and Marquis Renard and Chevalier Chagrin grab their cloaks and hurry to leave, little realizing they will meet again in prison as Eisenstein and Falke.
Act 3) The prison governor’s office.
Alfred has spent the night in jail, singing operatic excerpts, despite the attempts of the drunken jailer, Frosch, to silence him. Frosch, in his day job as jailer, recalls his triumphs on stage and performs a play he has written as he awaits the return of Frank, his governor. Frank staggers in, clearly disheveled after the party, dances tipsily with Frosch and then falls asleep. He is soon awakened, however, by two females, Adele and her sister Ida, who remind Frank of his earlier attentions to them as “Chevalier Chagrin.” Adele, who admits she is not really an actress but would like to be one, wants the Chevalier to help launch her stage career and begins to show off her Thespian skills. “Marquis Renard” is announced and the two girls are ushered into an empty cell. The visitor claims he is Eisenstein, to Frank’s astonishment, for he declares he himself had arrested Eisenstein the previous evening. The two men discover each other’s identities and Eisenstein is surprised to find that someone has been arrested in his place. Rosalinde is announced and Frank goes to meet her. Blind enters, having been summoned by Alfred to represent him as “Eisenstein.” The real Eisenstein intercepts him and demands that he and the lawyer exchange clothes, Eisenstein taking the lawyer’s coat, wig, and spectacles and affecting his stutter. As Alfred emerges from his cell he is confronted by the disguised Eisenstein. Rosalinde enters and does not recognize her husband in disguise. She is trying to figure out what to say to save her reputation. Eisenstein learns about Alfred’s assignation with his wife the previous evening and is so angry that he can barely stand to stay in character. When Rosalinde responds that her husband was out on the town himself, Eisenstein sheds his disguise and vents his jealousy, to the music heard at the beginning of the overture. Doctor Falke arrives with other guests from the party. Orlofsky is delighted with Adele and promises to underwrite her theatrical career. She laughs with great pleasure and Falke pronounces Orlofsky cured of his depression. Falke tells Rosalinde the outcome of the prank is in her hands. She confronts her husband with the gold watch, explaining away Alfred’s presence as part of Falke’s intrigue. Einstein apologizes, blaming King Champagne for all the trouble, promises to change his ways, and signs up with Falke for treatment. Eisenstein enters his cell and Alfred approaches Rosalinde. She rebuffs him. Champagne is brought in and there is a general toast.
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