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• List of operettas by Johann Strauss II

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Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner (de) and Richard Genée.

Literary sources

The original source for Die Fledermaus is Das Gefängnis (The Prison), a farce by German playwright Julius Roderich Benedix (1811–1873). Another source is the French vaudeville play Le réveillon, by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, which was first translated by Karl Haffner into a non-musical play to be produced in Vienna. However, the peculiarly French custom of the réveillon (a New Year's Eve supper party) caused problems, which were solved by the decision to adapt the play as a libretto for Johann Strauss, with the réveillon replaced by a Viennese ball. At this point Haffner's translation was handed over for adaptation to Richard Genée, who subsequently claimed not only that he had made a fresh translation from scratch but that he had never even met Haffner.

Performance history

Die Fledermaus, Düsseldorf, 1954

The operetta premièred on 5 April 1874 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and has been part of the regular repertoire ever since:

It was performed in New York under Rudolf Bial (de) at the Stadt Theatre on 21 November 1874. The German première took place at Munich's Gärtnerplatztheater in 1875. Die Fledermaus was sung in English at London's Alhambra Theatre on 18 December 1876, with its score modified by Hamilton Clarke.

The first London performance in German did not take place until 1895. According to the archivist of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, "Twenty years after its production as a lyric opera in Vienna, [composer and conductor Gustav] Mahler raised the artistic status of Strauss's work by producing it at the Hamburg Opera House [...] all the leading opera houses in Europe, notably Vienna and Munich, have brightened their regular repertoire by including it for occasional performance."

The role of Eisenstein was originally written for a tenor, but is nowadays frequently sung by a baritone. The role of Orlofsky is a trouser role, usually performed by a mezzo-soprano.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere cast, 5 April 1874 (Conductor: Johann Strauss II)
Gabriel von Eisenstein	tenor/baritone	Jani Szika
Rosalinde, Eisenstein's wife	soprano	Marie Geistinger
Adele, Rosalinde's maid	soprano	Caroline Charles-Hirsch
Ida, Adele's sister	soprano	Jules
Alfred, a singer teacher	tenor	Hans Rüdiger
Dr Falke, a notary	baritone	Ferdinand Lebrecht
Dr Blind, a lawyer	tenor	Carl Matthias Rott
Frank, a prison governor	baritone	Carl Adolf Friese
Prince Orlofsky	mezzo-soprano (en travesti)	Irma Nittinger
Yvan, the prince's valet	speaking role
Frosch, a jailer	speaking role	Alfred Schreiber
Party goers and servants at Prince Orlofsky's (chorus)

Synopsis

Act 1

Eisenstein's apartment

Gabriel von Eisenstein has been sentenced to eight days in prison for insulting an official, partially due to the incompetence of his attorney, Dr. Blind. Adele, Eisenstein's maid, receives a letter from her sister, who is in the company of the ballet, inviting her to Prince Orlofsky's ball. She pretends the letter says that her aunt is very sick, and asks for a leave of absence ("My sister Ida writes to me"). Falke, Eisenstein's friend, arrives to invite him to the ball (Duet: "Come with me to the souper"). Eisenstein bids farewell to Adele and his wife Rosalinde, pretending he is going to prison (Terzett: "Oh dear, oh dear, how sorry I am") but really intending to postpone jail for one day and have fun at the ball.

After Eisenstein leaves, Rosalinde is visited by her former lover, the singing teacher Alfred, who serenades her ("Dove that has escaped"). Frank, the governor of the prison, arrives to take Eisenstein to jail, and finds Alfred instead. In order not to compromise Rosalinde, Alfred agrees to pretend to be Eisenstein and to accompany Frank. (Finale, drinking song: "Happy is he who forgets" followed by Rosalinde’s defence when Frank arrives: "In tête-à-tête with me so late," and Frank’s invitation: "My beautiful, large bird-cage.")

Act 2

A summer house in the Villa Orlovsky

It turns out that Falke, with Prince Orlofsky's permission, is orchestrating the ball as a way of getting revenge on Eisenstein. The previous winter, Eisenstein had abandoned a drunken Falke dressed as a bat (and thus explaining the opera's title) in the center of town, exposing him to ridicule the next day. As part of his scheme, Falke has invited Frank, Adele, and Rosalinde to the ball as well. Rosalinde pretends to be a Hungarian countess, Eisenstein goes by the name "Marquis Renard," Frank is "Chevalier Chagrin," and Adele pretends she is an actress.

The ball is in progress (Chorus: "A souper is before us") and the Prince welcomes his guests ("I love to invite my friends"). Eisenstein is introduced to Adele, but is confused as to who she really is because of her striking resemblance to his maid. ("My lord marquis," sometimes referred to as "Adele's Laughing Song" or "The Laughing Song").

Some productions insert Strauss's "Frühlingsstimmen" ("Voices of Spring") waltz at this point, sung by a guest soprano.

Then Falke introduces the disguised Rosalinde to Eisenstein (Csárdás: "Sounds from home"). During an amorous tête-à-tête, she succeeds in extracting a valuable watch from her husband's pocket, something which she can use in the future as evidence of his impropriety. (Watch duet: "My eyes will soon be dim"). In a rousing finale, the company celebrates (The Drinking song: "In the fire stream of the grape"; followed by the canon: "Brothers, brothers and sisters"; the polka "Unter Donner und Blitz" (in versions led by Carlos Kleiber and others following his example), and the waltz finale, "Ha, what joy, what a night of delight.")

Act 3

In the prison offices of Governor Frank

The next morning they all find themselves at the prison where the confusion increases and is compounded by the jailer, Frosch, who has profited by the absence of the prison director to become gloriously drunk.

Adele arrives to obtain the assistance of the Chevalier Chagrin (Melodrama; Couplet of Adele: "If I play the innocent peasant maid") while Alfred wants nothing more than to get out of jail. Knowing of Eisenstein's trickery, Rosalinde wants to begin an action for divorce, and Frank is still intoxicated.

Frosch locks up Adele and her sister Ida, and the height of the tumult arrives when Falke appears with all the guests of the ball and declares the whole thing is an act of vengeance for the "Fledermaus". (Trio between Rosalinde, Eisenstein, Alfred: "A strange adventure"). Everything is amicably arranged (with Eisenstein blaming the intoxicating effects of champagne for his act of infidelity and Frank volunteering to support Adele's artistic career), but Eisenstein is compelled to serve his full term in jail (Finale, "Oh bat, oh bat, at last let thy victim escape").

Recordings

Main article: Die Fledermaus discography

Film adaptations

Die Fledermaus has been adapted numerous times for the cinema and for TV:

Year	Country	Notes	Director	Eisenstein	Rosalinde	Adele	Orlofsky	Frosch
1917	Germany	as Das Fidele Gefängnis (The Merry Jail) silent film	Ernst Lubitsch	Harry Liedtke (Alex von Reizenstein)	Kitty Dewall (Alice, his wife)	Agda Nielson (Mizi, the maid)		Emil Jannings (Quabbe, the jailer)
1923	Germany	silent film	Max Mack	Harry Liedtke	Eva May	Lya De Putti	–?–	–?–
1931	France/Germany		Karel Lamač	Georg Alexander	Betty Werner	Anny Ondra	Iván Petrovich	Karl Etlinger
1933	Great Britain	Waltz Time – new title	Wilhelm Thiele	Fritz Schulz	Evelyn Laye	Gina Malo	George Baker	Jay Laurier
1937	Germany		Paul Verhoeven	–?–	–?–	–?–	–?–	–?–
1945	Germany	Released 1946	Géza von Bolváry	Johannes Heesters	Marte Harell	Dorit Kreysler	Siegfried Breuer	Josef Egger
1955	Great Britain	Oh... Rosalinda!! – new title	Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger	Michael Redgrave	Ludmilla Tchérina	Anneliese Rothenberger	Anthony Quayle	Oskar Sima
1955	East Germany	Rauschende Melodien – new title	E. W. Fiedler	Erich Arnold	Jarmila Ksirová	Sonja Schöner	Gerd Frickhöffer	Josef Egger
1959	West Germany	TV adaptation	Kurt Wilhelm	Friedrich Schoenfelder	–?–	–?–	–?–	–?–
1962	Austria	Die Fledermaus	Géza von Cziffra	Peter Alexander	Marianne Koch	Marika Rökk	Boy Gobert	Hans Moser
1968	Denmark	Flagermusen – new title	John Price	Poul Reichhardt	Birgitte Bruun	Ellen Winther	Susse Wold	Buster Larsen
1972	West Germany		Otto Schenk	Eberhard Wächter	Gundula Janowitz	Renate Holm	Wolfgang Windgassen	Otto Schenk
1979	Soviet Union	Летучая Мышь – new title	Yan Frid	Yury Solomin	Lyudmila Maksakova	Larisa Udovichenko	Yuri Vasilyev	Ivan Lyubeznov
1984	Great Britain	TV adaptation	Humphrey Burton	Hermann Prey	Kiri Te Kanawa	Hildegard Heichele	Doris Soffel	Josef Meinrad
1986	West Germany		Otto Schenk	Eberhard Wächter	Pamela Coburn	Janet Perry	Brigitte Fassbaender	Franz Muxeneder
1990	Great Britain		Humphrey Burton	Louis Otey	Nancy Gustafson	Judith Howarth	Jochen Kowalski	John Sessions
1997	Australia		Lindy Hume	Anthony Warlow	Gillian Sullivan	Amelia Farrugia	Suzanne Johnston	Geoff Kelso
2001	France	La chauve-souris – French title	Don Kent	Christoph Homberger	Mireille Delunsch	Malin Hartelius	David Moss	Elisabeth Trissenaar

References

Notes

1. ^ it appears as number 16 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operatic works. Opera Statistics
2. ^ The Observer, 4 May 1930, p. 14: interview with ROH archivist Richard Northcott in connection with revival of Die Fledermaus conducted by Bruno Walter
3. ^ Because many English versions of the opera exist, character names can occasionally vary: Ida, for example, is called Sally in the Schirmer translation, see Die Fledermaus: operetta in three acts (in German). G. Schirmer, Inc. 1986. 

Sources

• Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Die Fledermaus, 5 April 1874". Almanacco Amadeus (Italian).
• "Die Fledermaus" by Andrew Lamb, in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie. (subscription required)
• Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5