Strauss Classic Livens Up New Haven
By Joe Meyers, Connecticut Post, Bridgeport
Feb. 13–Mix a farcical mistaken-identity plot with lots of booze and dancing and you’ve got Johann Strauss’ musical bon bon, “Die Fledermaus,” which is being presented this weekend in New Haven by Yale Opera and the Yale School of Music.
The Strauss classic debuted in April, 1874, was an immediate hit, and was quickly added to the repertory of opera companies all over the world.
The fast-moving comic plot, and the buoyant music, make it the perfect opera for dating couples and families.
In the most recent Opera America poll, “Die Fledermaus” was 19 on the list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America.
Some companies schedule the crowd-pleasing opera every year as a special New Year’s Eve gala. The musical theater piece was adapted from a French farce, “Le reveillon.”
“Die Fledermaus” began as a non-musical production in Vienna.
One of the problems in adapting the play for Austria was the uniquely French custom of a midnight supper party (the term that gave the original play its title).
Someone had the brainstorm to turn the midnight supper into a Viennese ball and Strauss was brought in to write the music. Yale Opera director Marc Verzatt believes that the musical play still resonates with audiences because “the convoluted web of 19th-century Viennese society, with its schemes, marital indiscretions and backstabbing, is really a mirror to 21st-century Hollywood and American pop culture.” The New Haven production of “Die Fledermaus” will mark the North American debut of the British conductor Jeremy Silver, who was the principal conductor of Opera Africa in South Africa from 2004 to 2007.
He has also served on the music staffs of the Scottish Opera, the English National Opera and the Glyndebourne festival. Director Verzatt has been part of the Yale University faculty as a lecturer in opera for the past five years.
He is currently teaching acting in the master’s degree program at Yale.
Verzatt began his career as assistant stage director for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Last season, Verzatt staged “L’Italiana in Algeri” for Arizona Opera and “Tosca” (with Aprile Millo) at the Cincinnati Opera.
The weekend performances at the Shubert will be sung in German with projected surtitles in English.
New English dialogue has been written for the production by Verzatt.
“Die Fledermaus” is being presented at New Haven’s Shubert Theater, 247 College Ave., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $19 to $41 and can be ordered by calling 562-5666. Student with ID can buy tickets for $10 and patrons 65 or older get a 15 percent discount.
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