Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Johann Strauss
Operetta and ball with surprises
Duration – 2 hours 45 minutes (withintermission)
Stage Director: Dmitry Bertman
Music Director: Mstislav Rostropovich
Set and Costume Designers: Igor Nezhny and Tatiana Tulubieva
Lighting Designer: Aleksander Nilov
Choirmaster: Yevgeny Ilyin
Choreographer: Aleksander Tagiltsev
Premiere – June 28, 1996
New Year could and should be started with an opera! And it would be even better if it is an operetta such as the famous "Die Fledermaus" in “Helikon-Opera”, created with the help of the great Mstislav Rostropovich!
There are some people who can boast of possessing a collection of tickets of Helikon’s "Die Fledermaus" of different years. It has become a nice tradition for them to begin a calendar year with that performance. They say it brings good luck.
If you would like to verify this belief, welcome to "Helikon-Opera"! You will be a dear guest at a masked ball in the house of Prince Orlovsky and have a lot of fun with the characters of the operetta by Strauss as well as with famous actors of theatre and cinema.
Everyone and everything will spin in a whirlwind of Viennese Waltz. Flirtation, convivial jokes, love misunderstandings and sweet treats. "An air of fun, fake fear and tears, sweet little lie... Everything knots in an intrigue tangle in the rhythm of waltz, polka, csárdás and cancan. Masquerade glittering lights and clinks of glasses of sparkling champagne will definitely lift your mood", - comments "Novaya Gazeta" on the Helikon’s production.
Who is invited as the main guest always remains a mystery – we are full of surprises... However, let us reveal some secrets: traditionally, spectators are treated with champagne and vodka with dill pickles, and the concert band greets our guests at the front staircase!
This is a masquerade, ladies and gentlemen!
Summary
Act 1
...One night, returning from a cheerful bowl, Gabriel von Eisenstein left his drunken friend Falke in costume of bat alone at the town square. Falk is very angry with him and decides to revenge.Eisenstein is sentenced to eight days in prison for violation of public order. He has to go to prison the same night. But Falke suggests he should spend this night at the ball of Prince Orlofsky, and go to prison the next morning. Eisenstein consents readily and leaves, saying a tender farewell to his wife. It seems suspicious to Rosalinde, that her husband is going to prison dressed in a tail-coat, but she pays little attention to it as her old friend Alfred comes soon and the woman also hopes to have a good time. Rosalinde and Alfred had scarcely got cozy, when Frank, a prison governor came to arrest Eisenstein. Having seen the man, dressed in a bathrobe, Frank mistakes him for the host of the house and takes away. Adele, Rosalinde’s maid also hurries to the Orlovsky’s ball, allegedly by her cousin Ida’s invitation. Under the pretense of her old aunt’s illness, the girl obtains the hostess’s permission to be absent and leaves, having stolen one of the best Rosalinde’s evening dresses. The holiday at the Orlofsky’s house. Eisenstein, running after Rosalinde, who pretends to be a Hungarian countess, gives her a beautiful pocket watch as a present.
Act 2
The ball is going on. There are Adele, the disguised prison governor Frank and Falke, rubbing his hands as he is watching Eisenstein flirting with his own unrecognized wife. Day is breaking. Eisenstein leaves the ball wabbling, but he hasn’t forgotten that he has to go to prison. He is much astonished, having known that an Eisenstein has already occupied a prison cell! The tantrum of the real Eisenstein is inexpressible. But smiling Rosalinde shows her husband the pocket watch, presented by him to a “Hungarian countess” at the ball. Eisenstein has been caught with the goods and all he can do is to accept his loser’s role.