UK Edition
Review
The plot’s silly, but this Fledermaus flies – review
Two fault-lines always ends up scuppering my enjoyment of Die Fledermaus. One is the not terribly funny situation which underpins the plot, and the passages of spoken dialogue through which opera singers labour to deliver it; the other is the anti-climactic third act, set in a lock-up, which contains only two substantial musical numbers and unravels the intrigue at tedious length.
Neither of these stumbling blocks is avoided in Opera Holland Park’s otherwise enjoyable and straightforward production. Presented in Alistair Beaton’s serviceable if plodding translation, cheerfully directed by Martin Lloyd-Evans and stylishly designed by takis (sic), it adopts an Art Deco setting that evokes the era of the Bright Young Things and the early novels of Evelyn Waugh.
Lloyd-Evans doesn’t mine the satirical potential that other directors have found in the ghastly bourgeois smugness of the characters: the Feydeau farce of the first scene isn’t executed crisply or wittily enough, and Orlofsky’s orgiastic party seems dismally decorous by today’s standards. But Lloyd-Evans keeps the pace buoyant and to his credit doesn’t evade the sting in the tail – despite the general champagne merriment of the finale, Falke’s revenge on Eisenstein is evidently something pretty vicious.
The musical genius of Johann Strauss is in good hands. John Rigby, experienced in the West End, leads the City of London Sinfonia in a relaxed yet effervescent account of the score, and there’s some excellent singing.
Susanna Hurrell may not radiate the sophisticated insouciance of Gertie Lawrence or Norma Shearer, but her Rosalinda looks terrific and aside from the dubiously wild whoop that crowns it, she gives a spirited account of the notoriously tricky Csardas. As her sleazy husband Eisenstein, her off-stage husband Ben Johnson shows a nice gift for light comedy and sings without affectation or ostentation.
Samantha Price is miscast as Orlofsky – she’s too breezily jolly to suggest a terminally bored White Russian plutocrat – while Peter Davoren’s bumptious Alfred was merely irritating. The two stand-out performances were those of Gavan Ring as a beautifully suave Falke, whipping up the gorgeously creamy kitsch of “Brüderlein und Schwesterlein” with consummate grace, and Jennifer France as the maid Adele – her imitation of Jane Horrocks’s Ab Fab PA Bubble may have been a little wide of the mark, but her dispatch of her two soubrette showpiece arias was spot-on and dazzling.
Die Fledermaus runs at Opera Holland Park, London, until August 5. Tickets: 0300 999 1000; operahollandpark.com