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Gabriel von Eisenstein, a wealthy landowner......................................... Rosalinde, his wife................................................................................ Adele, their chambermaid..................................................................... Dr. Falke, notary public........................................................................ Dr. Blind, lawyer.................................................................................. Frank, prison warden........................................................................... Prince Orlofsky.................................................................................... Alfred, his singing teacher..................................................................... Ivan, servant to the prince..................................................................... Frosch, bailiff........................................................................................ Ida, Adele’s sister................................................................................. Melanie, Faustine, Felicita, Minni, Sidi................................................... Hermine, Natalie, Sabine, Silvia............................................................ Ali-Bey, a distinguished Egyptian.......................................................... Ramusin, Japanese embassy attaché...................................................... Murray, a rich American....................................................................... Cariconi, Spanish gambler..................................................................... Four servants........................................................................................ |
tenor soprano soprano baritone tenor baritone mezzo-soprano tenor speaking role speaking role soprano soprano mezzo-soprano tenor tenor bass bass tenor |
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Chorus (SSTTB)
Orchestra: 2 (picc), 2, 2, 2 - 4, 2, 3, 0 - timp, perc - harp - str In the spring of 1999 the Strauss Edition Wien presented the first operetta volume in its »Neue Johann Strauss Gesamtausgabe«: Die Fledermaus. Being, after all, one of the most frequently performed works in the entire genre, a scholarly-critical text of this operetta has long been overdue. The work appeared in two volumes. The first will present the revised musical text, including the »New Csárdás« added by Strauss himself. The second will contain a preface discussing the work’s genesis, a critical apparatus (with all musical examples) and a complete libretto. The latter section will contrast the libretto submitted to the censorship office by the Theater an der Wien with the stage copy published by Lewy that same year. To whet the reader’s appetite, several samples are reproduced from the French original, Le Réveillon, to document the origins of the Fledermaus–libretto. Die Fledermaus is perhaps the only Strauss operetta that did not undergo constant revision. Although many of his pieces were retexted shortly after their premières, Richard Genée’s masterly libretto made such alterations superfluous. From the very outset the work was a triumphant success; and, by great good fortune, Strauss’s later plans to rework the music for the heavier voices of the Court Opera eventually came to nought. But the fact that Die Fledermaus was never revised does not imply that it has been handed down to us in uncorrupted form. Its so-called »traditions« have obstinately retained their hold to the present day, even in a wide variety of publications. The autograph full score of Die Fledermaus has not survived in complete form: it lacks the finales to Acts 1 and 3, the first number with Alfred and Adele, and the chorus that opens Act 2. The reasons for this probably had to do with Strauss’s working habits. Strauss shared the hack work of writing down the score with the librettist and conductor Richard Genée, who in turn passed on the finished numbers to the copyists. In the constant to and fro between Strauss, Genée, the theater and the copyists, a number of sections of the score must have been misplaced. In compensation, the surviving sections of the autograph are notated with painstaking accuracy and are scarcely open to misinterpretation – once one becomes familiar with the idiosyncracies of Strauss’s handwriting: his preference for ligatures instead of slurs on consecutive chords in the winds, his tendency to place staccato marks only in the oboe or first clarinet, and his habit of writing different forms of phrase marks for winds and strings, to mention only a few striking examples. Nor have his subtle placement of dynamic marks and his precise indication of tempo changes generally received the attention they deserve. On such matters in particular countless misunderstandings have been handed down. Constant tempo shifts, ritardandos and accelerandos with no justification in the sources have found their way into, for example »Brüderlein und Schwesterlein« from the Act 2 Finale. Just how meticulously Strauss notated such subtleties when he wanted them can be seen most clearly in Rosalinde’s »Csárdás«. The knottiest questions arise, as might be expected, in connection with the numbers missing in the autograph. In years of research the Strauss Edition Wien has unearthed significant but previously unknown sources, some of which shed extraordinary new light on the work. The most important is a complete handwritten publisher’s score which was presumably prepared directly from Strauss’s autograph and has been preserved in the archives of the Schwerin Opera since its first performance there in 1896. Equally interesting from a source standpoint is an autotyped score from Johann Strauss’s private library that later served as a master copy for the full score issued by Cranz; today this manuscript is located in the historical archives of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Also important is a previously known but disregarded manuscript score from the archives of the Czech National Theater in Prague. A study of these and other sources not only reveals that the autotyped score issued by Cranz in or around 1906 – and frequently used in performances and editions today – contains serious non-authorial departures from the original. It also impressively proves that findings from the extant autograph sections of the work must also be applied to the numbers missing in the autograph score. The new features in the Complete Edition’s Fledermaus–score primarily involve corrections of phrasing, dynamics and tempo indications. But the newly discovered source materials also allowed us to make essential changes to the vocal parts – not excluding the melodic line – and to the instrumentation. We were also able to rectify a large number of verbal passages incorrectly handed down in the libretto – both in the lyrics and the prose dialogue. Taken altogether, we obtain a new picture of Strauss’s operetta, one perhaps less well-rounded and more angular in its shape. The restitution of the autograph text makes it clearer than even before that we are dealing with a masterpiece, and why this is so – a masterpiece of compelling formal unity and extreme subtlety of nuance that will no longer brook being swept aside by crude histrionic gestures. Michael Rot Eisenstein’s parlor. Alfred sings a serenade to Rosalinde. Adele receives an invitation to a gala evening at the house of Prince Orlofsky, addressed to her by Dr Falke under the name of her sister Ida. Enraged, Eisenstein appears, accompanied by his attorney Dr Blind, for now instead of five days he will have to spend eight days in prison. His departure plays into the hands of the bold lover Alfred, who promptly usurps Eisenstein’s position as master of the house. But more than that he and Rosalinde are not allowed, for the prison warden, Frank, now bursts onto the scene to fetch Eisenstein personally. To prevent Rosalinde from being compromised Alfred pretends to be Eisenstein – and is duly carried off. Spirits are high in Prince Orlofsky’s garden palace: there is gambling and wine, dancing and amours. Dr. Falke promises Orlofsky a comedy. One after another they make their appearances: Adele disguised as an actress, Eisenstein as the Marquis Renard, Frank as the Chevalier Chagrin, Rosalinde as a fiery Hungarian countess. Stage one of the revenge begins: Eisenstein addresses Adele as his maid – and is rebuked for his poor breeding. Stage two: he forms a friendship with, of all people, Chagrin, the prison warden. Stage three: he makes love to his own wife. The revels reach a climax and the clock strikes six. Eisenstein must go off to prison, and Frank must return to work. The prison. The drunken jailer, Frosch, gropes in the dark. Frank, no less drunk, returns. Two ladies appear: Ida and Adele, seeking the protection of the soi-disant Chevalier Chagrin to advance their stage careers. Eisenstein arrives and has difficulty identifying Chagrin as the prison warden – much less establishing his own identity. He is told, to his astonishment, that a Herr Eisenstein had already entered his cell the day before. Rosalinde rushes in to liberate Alfred and to upbraid her husband. Eisenstein is livid with rage. Finally, the revellers arrive in full force and all is explained: the champagne is to blame for everything. |