Die Fledermaus

This film records Joan Sutherland's last public performance in 1990. At the end of Act II, at the point where Prince Orlovsky's guests are usually introduced, La Stupenda glides onto the stage wearing a layered green tulle dress and looking for all the world like a Christmas tree on castors. The audience erupts, they scarcely even notice that she is accompanied by Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne. Dame Joan sings an excellent duet from Semiramide with Marilyn Horne. Then she sings a, somewhat shaky duet from the end of La Traviata with Pavarotti. Pavarotti tries to put his arm around her waist but his attempted circumnavigation ends in failure. Finally, the last thing that Dame Joan ever sings in public is a rather cheesy version of…no, I won't tell you, you have to see it to believe it. Several thousand elderly groupies in evening dress rise to their feet, including the, then, British Prime Minister John Major. Dame Joan glides off-stage and it is all over.

Except we are only halfway through the opera which is the pretext for the entire evening. This is as good a version of Die Fledermaus as you can hope to see. I have seen four different versions of this opera in the last couple of years and they have all been nothing short of excellent, leading me to suspect that, as a guaranteed evening's entertainment, it is pretty much bullet-proof. I have seen two versions completely in German. This makes the music sound better but the jokes in German tend to fall flat. My favourite version is the 1984 production, also from Covent Garden, in which Rosalinde, played by Kiri Te Kanawa, is the English wife of von Eisenstein. This makes it plausible for the musical numbers to be in German but most of the dialogue and all the jokes to be in English. This 1990 production is in English so there is a wonderful comedy routine by John Sessions as the Jailer Frosch with many jibes at the expense of rich opera-goers, the Tory government and Prime Minister Major. The other feature that I found unusual was that Prince Orlovsky was played by a counter-tenor, Jochen Kowalski, rather than a transvestite woman as in all the other versions that I have seen. Given the Rocky Horror nature of the role, I found that this worked quite well.

Let me start off by mentioning what bothers me most about this "film" (basically a recorded stage opera): as one other reviewer mentioned, the Joan Sutherland tribute is totally out of place in the middle of an opera which is in full bloom. This part should have been done as an encore, at the end of the night. But maybe they feared not many people would have stayed to see it. I wouldn't, because I'm not a fan of Sutherland, who is (was) technically fine but severely lacking in emotion. Now, let's talk about what the film is really about: Die Fledermaus. This is an utterly entertaining opera, with tons of enchanting melodies and very funny situations. I have to admit that all the main roles are excellently sung, except for Orlofsky, whose lines are hard to understand. Add to that the lavish production and excellent orchestra, and you have a winner...you would think... But...I just don't buy this opera in English. "Die Fledermaus", it just rolls off your tongue, and it summons up dark, yet romantic images. Compare that to "the bat". Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the English language, it's absolutely perfect for pop/rock music, or even for more serious genres (Les Mis comes to mind), provided however that it's the language the lyrics were originally written in. Strauss' masterpiece was off course written in German, and that's the way it should be sung. "My dear, my dear, how sad this is" just doesn't hold up against "O je, o je, wie rührt mich dies". So on this point I have to thoroughly disagree with one of the other reviewers who seems to prefer the English spoken versions. Never more so than where he claims the German jokes fall flat. On the contrary, it is this version of Die Fledermaus where the whole third act is inferior to every German version I have seen. Yes, John Sessions is witty ("Before you can count to ten, I'll make you a counter tenor"). But he is addressing the audience...and that is NOT what Frosch should be doing. Instead he should be drunk, and doing (not telling) funny things, like removing the calendar leaf saying December 31st, only to reveal the next one, stating: December 32nd. This third act is where this, otherwise fine, version of Die Fledermaus falls flat compared to the German versions I've seen. But again, Howarth, Gustafson, Otey, Bottone, Michaels-Moore, they all sing and act very well, so I'll give it 7 out of 10.

I don't mean this in a bad way at all, I am a huge fan of opera and operetta and consider Die Fledermaus one of the most enjoyable of the many I've seen in my very short life(19 years).

I also recommend the brilliant 1984 Covent Garden production with TeKanawa and Prey with Domingo conducting, but this is a most wonderful production. The orchestra is excellent and the conducting precise and stylish.

The story is still zany and entertaining, complete with hilarious jokes and dialogue. This production is also visually opulent with sumptuous costumes and sets, great lighting and excellent video directing. The ballet choreography is charming and very beautifully done.

The performances are right on the money. Judith Howarth is great as Adele, Nancy Gustafson is exquisite as Rosalinde and Louis Otey is a very handsome and entertaining Eisenstein. John Sessions is very amusing as Frosch as is Bonaventura Bottone as Alfred(though I found Alfred in the 1984 production hilarious), and while different to what you would expect, Jochan Kowalski is an interesting and well-sung Prince.

Some may find the Gala excerpt brings the experience down, I for one loved it. It was lovely to see some old favourites in Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti, who sing wonderfully. In her farewell performance, Joan Sutherland, in a dress that you have to see to believe, comes very close to stealing the show.

Overall, a wonderful production and a truly entertaining treat. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This could so easily have been a 9 if Joan Sutherland hadn't played the self-aggrandizing prima donna right to the very end of her career and disrupted - rather like an over-long television commercial - an otherwise excellent production. For this final appearance, she chose the role of a Green Mountain - and looked ridiculous; she didn't sound all that great either which proved her point about leaving while people are still willing to listen. At any other time hearing the three stars sing together would have been wonderful but they caused a break in the opera that never really healed and the final scene hobbled to the end - the continuity gone and the stuffing knocked out of it. Despite this, the excellence of the performances and the charm of the ballets make it worth seeing - fast-forwarding through the star turns by Sutherland, Horne and Pavarotti could be an option.