On this date in 1874, the Opera Die Fledermaus was first performed in Vienna. 10 things you might not know:
Die Fledermaus is German for “The Bat”.
The music is by Johann Strauss II and the original German libretto is by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.
It’s based on a farce by German playwright Julius Roderich Benedix, called Das Gefängnis (The Prison), which was adapted to suit the tastes of audiences in Vienna.
It took 42 days to write, in the summer of 1873.
Die Fledermaus was Strauss’s third operetta for Vienna’s Theatre an der Wien. On the opening night, he conducted the orchestra himself.
In only six years, the operetta was staged in more than 170 theatres in German-speaking countries and, by the 1890s, was performed all over the world. Today, it’s one of the most popular operettas worldwide, including India and Australia.
It wasn’t well received by the critics at first. Their reaction was, how dare they produce such a frivolous show on Easter Sunday? Audiences, however, didn’t share that sentiment. They loved it.
The story takes place on New Year's Eve in 1899. Gabriel von Eisenstein is a man about town married to Rosalinde. Her old flame Alfred shows up at their home to serenade her, while her maid, Adele, is trying to get the night off to go to a ball. She spins the story that she has to visit a sick aunt. Gabriel arrives with his lawyer, who has failed to prevent him getting an eight day prison sentence for striking a police officer. Gabriel’s friend Falke persuades him to delay presenting himself at the jail and to have a night of freedom and fun at a ball being held by Prince Orlofsky. Falke tells Gabriel that his pocket watch is what he might call today a “chick magnet”. While Gabriel is getting ready, Falke suggests to Rosaline that she should attend the ball in disguise so she can catch Gabriel in the act of chatting up other women. After he has gone, telling Rosalinde that he is off to present himself at the prison, the prison warder shows up to arrest Gabriel. Alfred goes with him, posing as Gabriel and Rosalinde relents and gives Adele permission to visit her aunt. That is act I.
Act II takes place at the ball. The various characters arrive in their disguises. Adele is a Russian actress named Olga. Gabriel is pretending to be a Frenchman and Rosalinde is disguised as a Hungarian countess. Gabriel thinks he recognises Adele, but she laughs it off. Must be a doppelganger. Rosalinde sees her husband flirting with her maid and isn’t impressed. In due course, Rosalinde attracts his attention and he starts flirting with her, too, not seeing through her disguise. She steals his pocket watch, which he tries in vain to retrieve. In the end, he gives up and decides he really ought to be off to jail, now.
Act III takes place at the jail where Alfred is annoying the guard by singing in his cell. Gabriel arrives to serve his sentence only to find his cell is already occupied by a man who claims to be him and had been apprehended at his home, where he’d been with Rosalinde. The lawyer arrives, having been summoned by Alfred to plead a case of mistaken arrest. Rosalinde also shows up, asking for a divorce. When Gabriel tries to accuse her of being unfaithful, she produces his Watch as proof that he was cheating. Orlofsky and his guests also show up, thinking the whole situation is a huge laugh. The opera ends with the whole company singing an ode to Champagne right there in the prison.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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