Die Fledermaus
February 23, 25, 27, 28 & March 1, 2007
James Cowan Theatre
In association with the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
By Johann Strauss Jr.
Stage directed by Matthew Bissett, music directed by David Boothroyd
Gabriel von Eisenstein plays a practical joke on Dr. Falke. A year later, Eisenstein is saying a tearful farewell to his wife as he prepares to go to jail for 14 days for insulting a public official. Falke sees this as a perfect “recipe for revenge.” And revenge is a glass best served filled with the finest Champagne! Die Fledermaus is a bubbly confection of score-settling, infidelity and mistaken identities, starting at the wildest Masked Ball in 1870s Vienna and ending the next morning in the chaos of a county jail. A festival of sparkling tunes bound together by a plot and a cast of characters that makes a virtue of absurdity.