As one who cut his operatic teeth on Wagner, even the best Viennese operetta by the Waltz King Johann Strauss Junior (a.k.a. Johann Sebastian Strauss—I have to believe that the first Waltz King, his father Johann Strauss Sr., had Bach on his mind) failed to excite me when the current season was announced. But as I delved into studying the operetta for potluck preview, I discovered that Strauss had written lots of delightful music, well worth hearing. Yes, it’s light, and frothy, and bubbly, but it’s well worth listening to.
The sets for acts one, two, and three all comprised the same “shell” along the back wall and the legs. They gave the impression that the action was taking place in a giant solarium, made up of numerous panes of glass a foot square set in steel frames of various thickness according to the needs of the structure. The legs were similarly made from foot-square panes of glass, set in double doors through which characters could enter and exit. It was somewhat reminiscent of the Crystal Palace on a small scale. The performing space of the first act was outfitted with a sofa and a dining table and other accoutrements of the residence of a wealthy Viennese banker. There is a big crowd at Prince Orlovsky’s party in act two, so there was not much in the way of decoration other than a fanciful structure with mirror-image curlicues perhaps ten feet tall. Act three, set in Frank’s prison, featured large steel jailhouse bars separating upstage from downstage. The bars bore a wooden sign, “MINISTRY OF JUSTICE.” To the right was Frank’s desk, to the left was an armoire in which he hung the fancy jacket that he had worn to the party in act two.
Our cast:
Gabriel von Eisenstein: James Callon
Rosalinde, his wife: Melody King
Adele, their chambermaid: Jillian Boye
Ida, Adele’s sister: Tori Grayum
Alfred, an Italian tenor, Rosalinde’s former flame: Michael Dailey
Dr. Falke, “the bat”: Zachary Altman
Dr. Blind, Eisenstein’s lawyer: Michael Mendelsohn
Frank, the prison warden: Silas Elash
Prince Orlofsky, a wealthy Russian: Nicole Birkland
Frosch, the jailer: Kelly Houston
Conductor: David Rohrbaugh
Stage Director: Marc Jacobs
As is typical, the music was sung in German and the dialogue was in English. David Scott Marley, he of Berkeley Opera’s Bat out of Hell, a wonderful spoof of Die Fledermaus, was commissioned to prepare a new English translation of the dialogue. I had hoped that it would be as hilarious as Bat out of Hell, but no, it was a fairly straight translation. The greatest liberty taken was to place the action ca. 1890, with Dr. Falke being a student of Dr. Freud’s. The opening of act three, which is usually the occasion for an extended comic scene by a superb actor, “far gone in drink” according to the libretto, turned out to be far shorter than customary, and Kelly Houston was stone-cold sober. Something of a let-down.
Zachary Altman continues to impress with his rich baritone; the company has traditionally done very well with baritones. I hope that as his training progresses that we’ll be able to mention him along with Douglas Nagel, Mel Ulrich, Brian Leerhuber, and Nmon Ford-Levine. Also outstanding, as expected, was Silas Elash as Frank. Jillian Boye as Adele uncorked some marvelous coloratura. The playing from the orchestra was superb. But the parts didn’t quite add up to a resounding whole; it was a beta.
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