It’s 150 years since Johann Strauss II’s operetta premiered in Vienna and it has been a mainstay of the repertoire ever since. Extravagant extolling of the virtues of champagne is a major feature of Die Fledermaus and so, with the perception of champagne and summer – or what passes for summer – in opera as synonymous, it was a natural choice for If Opera in their final season at Belcombe Court before moving elsewhere.
Motivated by his deep humiliation at being abandoned, post-party, overnight in a park, drunk and in fancy-dress as the titular bat, notary Dr Falke sets a trap that will expose his friend Gabriel von Eisenstein as the unfaithful husband and serial seducer he’s known to be. Ultimately, of course, the willing conspirators in this game of revenge – for which Die Fledermaus has become code – laughingly blame the champagne for fuelling the machinations, the disguises, transgressions and general shenanigans that ensue at Prince Orlofsky’s ball. The notion of vengeance inevitably evaporates as fast as the bubbles, the pain of betrayals dissolved.
