Strauss II, J.: Die Fledermaus

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Cat No: 8553171

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099417129

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: STRAUSS II, J.

Description
J. Straauss, JR. (1825-1899)Die Fledermaus (Highlights)The younger Johann Strauss, even more prolific and successful than his father, was born in 1825, the year in which the older Strauss established his own dance orchestra. He studied music at first by stealth, until his father abandoned the family in favour of his mistress in 1842. Two years later he launched his own dance orchestra and went on to unparallelled success, in which he compelled his younger brothers to share, although all three of them had been destined for other professions. In 1863 Johann Strauss was appointed Music Director for the balls held at court, a position he relinquished in 1871, when he was succeeded by his youngest brother, Eduard. His career took him abroad to London, Paris, Budapest and regularly to the Russian Vauxhall at Pavlovsk. For the theatre he wrote a series of operettas, from Indigo and the Forty Thieves in 1871 and Die Fledermaus three years later to the final Goddess of Reason in 1897. By the time of his death in 1899 Strauss had written some 500 pieces of music, waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and stage works, evidence of a fertile talent and an enormous capacity for work. The sparkling operetta Die Fledermaus (The Bat), based on the French vaudeville Le Réveillon by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, derived in its turn from a German play by Roderich Benedix, Das Gefängnis (The Prison), was first staged at the Vienna Theater an der Wien in 1874. The time was unpropitious, coming soon after a general financial disaster that had affected Vienna. The work ran for only sixteen performances. In Berlin, however, the reception was very different, with a series of a hundred consecutive performances. In 1894 it entered the evening repertoire of the Imperial Court Opera, accepted, as it had already been in Hamburg under Gustav Mahler. The bat of the title is Eisenstein, about to be imprisoned for tax misdemeanours, who is persuaded by his friend Falke to delay his imprisonment and attend a ball at the house of Prince Orlofsky. This he does in the guise of a bat. His wife Rosalinde plans to spend the evening with her lover Alfred, who finds himself mistaken for her husband and escorted to prison in his place by the prison governor, Frank. Rosalinde's maid Adele has sought leave to visit a sick aunt, intending herself to attend the ball at Orlofsky's. In the second act at Prince Orlofsky's Adele appears disguised as an actress. Falke reveals in conversation with Orlofsky that he plans what he describes as \the bat's revenge. Eisenstein, in his bat costume, presents himself as the French Marquis Renard. Falke introduces him to the prison governor Frank, a late arrival, disguised as the Chevalier Chagrin. They are followed by a Hungarian countess, Rosalinde in disguise, with whom Eisenstein flirts, allowing her to take his repeater watch. She dazzles the company with her singing of the czárdás. Falke is asked to tell the company the story o
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