The mysterious power of twilight

03/07/11 11:55
(http://www.klassa.bg/)

The mysterious power of twilight

by Petar PLAMENOV

11 March (Friday), 19:00
National Music Theatre
Address:
Sofia, 3 Panaiot Volov Str.
Phone: 02 943 19 79

Director: Svetozar Donev
Conductor: Igor Bogdanov
Scene and costume: Evgenia Raeva
Choreography: Svetlin Ivelinov
Master of tne Choir: Liudmil Gorchev
Cast: Mariiana Arsenova, Marcho Apostolov, Aleksandar Vasilev, Katerina Tuparova, Kalina Angelova, Aleksandar Mutafchiiski, Stefan Petkov, Emil Mitropolitski, Ivan Panev, Kiril Boiadjiev, Rumen Grigorov, Zornitza Damianova

Johann Strauss the younger, the 'Waltz King', was the greatest of all Viennese dance music composers. The young Strauss had started composing and directing his own ensemble of local musicians by the time that he was 20. His father disapproved, knowing well the insecurity of the profession. Strauss' genius lay in the way he took the waltz form his father and Josef Lanner had developed, and gave it a symphonic coherence and Romantic style, elevating waltzes from their relatively humble beginnings into mini masterpieces worthy of the concert hall. Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about the man who had set the whole world dancing was that he himself was a terrible dancer. He once confided to a friend: "[That's why I] have to give a firm 'no' to the many tempting and alluring 'invitations to the dance'".

The impressive and beautiful production The Bat is new project of the National Music Theatre. Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is a three-act operetta composed by Johann Strauss II and the libretto is written in German by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée. It is based on "Le Réveillon" by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. It was premiered in Vienna, Theater an der Wien, on April 5, 1874. The setting is in 19th century Vienna. Johann Strauss II's famous operetta Die Fledermaus has the Viennese brand of charm, sparkling orchestration, and much of the action carried through with an almost Mozartian freedom.

A curious fact is that the role of Orlofsky was written for a mezzo and not for a tenor. Strauss was very deliberately following the long tradition of having women sing "trouser" roles. Just think of Gluck's Orphee or Mozart's Cherubino in his Marriage of Figaro. The directors of the Theater an der Wien, encouraged by the success of Offenbach's works throughout Vienna, persuaded Strauss to write an operetta for their stage. The resulting operetta, Die Fledermaus, remains the quintessential Viennese operetta. It contains some of the most sparkling and inspired melodies of Strauss' career, as well as an excellent libretto.

It was later to become a popular and frequently performed work at the world's great opera houses which is not surprising: its combination of gay and inventive plotline plus brilliant, spirited music by Johann Strauss II went down well with the public. Even famous opera singers find plenty to test their skills in the virtuoso arias and ensembles with which this classical operetta proliferates, while its masked ball basis provides plenty of scope for imaginative producers. At one time, Mstislav Rostropovich and Boris Pokrovsky dreamed of producing Die Fledermaus at the Bolshoi. The admirers of Vienna classics will be pleasantly surprised by the new spectacle.In that most brilliant work by Johann Strauss II take part the stars of the National Musical Theatre, the orchestra, the chorus and the ballet of the theatre produced by professor Svetozar Donev.