Die Fledermaus (MET 86) - Klange der Heimat (Czsardas)

TV broadcast (with English subtitles) of J. Strauss "Die Fledermaus" at the MET 1986 with:
Kiri Te Kanawa (Rosalinde) // Hakan Hagegard (Gabriel von Eisenstein) // David Rendall (Alfred) // Tatiana Tryanos (Prince Orlofsky ) // Judith Blegen (Adele) // Michael Devlin (Dr. Falke) // Franz Mazura (Frank) // Otto Schenk (Frosh) // Anthony Laciura (Dr. Blind) // Victoria Brasser (Ida) //Ari Roussimoff ( Ivan)
Conductor -- J. Tatte

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Kiri
• Te
• Kanawa
• Die
• Fledermaus
• Strauss
• operetta
• opera

[thecelticinme]

Die Fledermaus which means the bat is a charming farsical operetta taking place in old Vienna. The story involves an unfaithful mischievous husband Gabriel Eisenstein his charming wife Rosalinda, their ambitious chambermaid Adele and a plotting mischievous friend Dr. Falke. Eisenstein had played a mean trick on Dr. Falke many years back.

[thecelticinme]

Dr. Falke planned a revenge to trap Eisenstein using his wife and chambermaid. Eisenstein is scheduled to go to jail for a week for some back taxes that his lawyer neglected to pay when Dr. Falke arrives convincing him to arrive hours later for his jail sentence. This way he can attend a fabulous party being held by the famous Prince Orlofsky of Russia where there will be lots of charming young girls whom he can flirt with.

[thecelticinme]

Eisenstein enthusiastically agrees and tells his wife Rosalinda that he will be dressing up in tails for his first night in jail. Meanwhile, Rosalinda has been distracted by an unexpected visit from her old lover Alfred. Alfred, knowing that Eisenstein must go to jail that evening makes himself comfortable in Eisenstein's robe and pours himself a drink.

[thecelticinme]

Rosalinda torn between throwing him out and enjoying the evening is distressed when Frank the jailer appears at the house to pick up Eisenstein for his 8 day sentence.

Believing Alfred to be Eisenstein he hauls him off to jail. Rosalinda receives a package from Dr. Falke warning her of her husband's infidelities and encouraging her to attend the ball disguised as as a Hungarian countess...

[chleb99]

hahah, really funny, she's jumping :D I think it's better than ROH version

[Salamon2]

Czsardas, while it is true that during the 19th Century it was mostly an Austrian puffed up stereotype taken to the extreme--akin to American satire of Mexicans during the 20th Century--it is infact based on an actual Hungarian dance that would be done in a rural inn. So like any stereotype, it was based on a small seed of truth, that just was overextended as time passed by. And I got that from the Hungarian professors I studied with in Wien & Budapest.

[sweetaliena]

Actually it's an hungarian dance. So you're not wrong.

[laxit4]

it come from the gipsy music played in the coffie houses in hungary .

[operafan85]

In fact, Czsardas ("Csárdás" in hungarian) is not a real hungarian folk song. In the 19. century it has been played in coffe houses mainly. Real hungarian folk music was discovered at the beginnig of the 20. century, when Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály

started to travel across Hungary and to collect songs have sung by old people.