The Oberlin Opera Theater and the Oberlin Orchestra premiered Die Fledermaus this Thursday, Nov. 13 with guest director Jonathon Field and guest conductor Maestro Imre Pallo, professor of music at Indiana University.
“Die Fledermaus is not the best operetta, it is the operetta,” said composer Felix von Weingartner, successor to Gustav Mahler as director of the Vienna Court Opera. And indeed, the libretto is a piece of its own. A firework of melody and rhythm revel from the first chords of the overture, and after an energetic introduction by the Orchestra, a bourgeois home is revealed for the audience. The first act begins.
It opens up with an amusing duet sung by Adele (Andie Raab), the chambermaid, who is longing to go to the prince’s salon, and her mistress Rosalinde (Alyson Cambridge), who on the other hand is longing for her former lover Alfred (Joseph Holmes). The opera is filled with comical remarks, plots and melodies, not to mention engaging acting. Perhaps the most entertaining example of this is when Eisenstein (Scott Skiba), Rosalinde and Adele sing a trio, each one proclaiming their own grief when in fact, they are all quite excited about the night ahead of them. Witty gesticulations and theatrical singing make a nice ending for the first act.
The second act takes place at prince Orlofsky’s garden salon. The women are in ornate dresses and the men in elegantly styled tuxedos, a rather characteristic portrait of the Vienna of the “Golden Age.” When Adele is introduced to the prince as the Russian actress Olga, Orlofsky’s attention is piqued and he asks her “Do you speak Russian?” Adele replies, “No, I speak slowly.” This is one example, where the English language works, but unfortunately it doesn’t most of the time. Nevertheless, taking into consideration what an enormous work it is to translate an opera, translator Alan Montgomery did an impressive job.
Cambridge proves herself a virtuoso with a gripping voice, as does Skiba in their departure song. The second act ends with a waltz, performed by all the singers on stage and the orchestra’s enthusiastic playing.
Johann Strauss, Jr. was born in 1825 and by the age of 19 he had founded his own orchestra. It was not until the age of 45 that he decided to write for the theater and was soon acclaimed as “The Waltz King.” When Strauss, Jr. ceased to be commissioned by the impresarios, many of his major contributions to the music world were unleashed. It has been said that, in a frenzy of creativity, he had the music on paper in 42 days and nights.
Ironically, when Die Fledermaus premiered, it was a flop; however, it didn’t disappear from the operetta repertoire. Instead it drew larger audiences each year it was performed. Today Die Fledermaus is staged in the most prestigious opera houses.
The premise of Die Fledermaus is poignant considering the times in which it was composed. The operetta was composed during a time of economic depression and therefore serves as a song of farewell to a vanishing era of prosperity. This context brings an added complexity to the constant run of gregarious partying, which concludes in the third act with a final toast in jail.

Die Fledermaus plays this weekend, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.