Manfred Honeck conducts »Die Fledermaus«

Schweinfurt, Theater
17:00 Uhr

On this last Sunday of Fasching – carnival season – the Bamberg Symphonic will tell of life and love in Vienna. »I write day and night, labouring like a cab horse,« the »King of the Waltz« Johann Strauß once wrote. He worked as the court ball director at large balls, while couples circled first one way, then the other on the dancefloor. Doctors repeatedly warned against the waltz’s supposedly »life-threatening turns«. Despite this, Vienna fell completely under the spell of 3/4 time. Strauß commented: »When I play my fiddle, even the chicks in their eggs dance along!« Rather surprisingly, initially he was not keen on composing operettas. However, his wife Jetty was more ambitious: she wanted »Schani«, as he was called, to go into the theatre business! Strauß enjoyed some initial successes as well as suffering a few flops – but his big breakthrough came in 1874 with the ultra-Viennese »Die Fledermaus« (»The Bat«). »Die Fledermaus« is based on the play »Das Gefängnis« (»The Prison«) – a social farce with ironic undertones set in »a spa close to a large city«. Here, the only people who count are the ones who do not have to work. It all starts with a kind of conversation comedy set in the house of Eisenstein, a gentleman of independent means. Gradually, all the guests depart, citing various excuses, as they all want to go to a party being held by the Russian count Orlovsky. The operetta’s main focus is the colourful goings-on at this masked ball and the ludicrous mistaken identities that ensue. Illusion and reality: everyone forgets their proper role in a whirl of waltzes and galops, drunk on kisses and wine, abandoning themselves to a delusory sense of togetherness. The operetta’s final Viennese prank leads back to dull reality – and reveals that the splendour of the aristocratic world is somewhat tarnished. Strauß created a work full of infectious music, leading a contemporary to enthuse: »Its rhythms swept through the events like a tornado, lifting them up to dance in the air.«

Manfred Honeck Conductor
Bo Skovhus Gabriel von Eisenstein
Laura Aikin Soprano
Kresimir Strazanac Gefängnisdirektor
Stefanie Irányi Prinz Orlofsky
Bernhard Berchtold Alfred
Michael Nagy Dr. Falke
Kresimir Spicer Dr. Blind
Nikola Hillebrand Adele & Ida
Martin Rassau "Frosch"
Philharmonischer Chor München

Johann Strauß (Sohn) »Die Fledermaus«, Operette in drei Akten (Konzertante Aufführung - szenisches Arrangement: Doris Sophia Heinrichsen)