Die Fledermaus has some of the greatest comic melodies ever presented on an operatic stage–a festival of light-hearted tunes bound together by a plot and a cast of characters that make a virtu of absurdity. This 1988 production, which is acted as charmingly as it is sung, brings out the show’s wit, energy, vitality, and, above all, style–a special gemutlichkeit usually associated with Vienna but also cultivated, on this occasion, in Munich.
Nobody in this production’s superbly chosen cast has the kind of name recognition enjoyed by the stars of the competing DVD from Covent Garden: Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, and Luciano Pavarotti. But they are all first- class musicians and/or comic actors, adept in the special requirements of Viennese operetta and integrated into a deftly crafted ensemble production, with expert conducting by Carlos Kleiber and finely detailed stage direction by Otto Schenk. At Covent Garden, in Joan Sutherland’s farewell appearance, Pavarotti et al. were simply inserted into the Act II party scene as “gusts”–musically splendid but irrelevant to the story. In contrast, the Bavarian State Opera production presents Die Fledermaus substantially as Johann Strauss II originally imagined it–something the Covent Garden production, performed in English, did not manage (or, really, attempt) to do.
The men in the cast provide a lot of the comedy, but the most spectacular music is given to the women: Pamela Coburn as a housewife who masqurades as a Hungarian countess, Janet Perry as a chambermaid who wants to break into show biz, Brigitte Fassbaender in the colorful trouser role of Prince Orlofsky. These performances are carefully poised on the brink of outrageousness but never go too far. Deutsche Grammophon supplies an informative, illustrated booklet with this disc–a rarity in DVD productions and much appreciated. –Joe McLellan
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