Word: fledermaus
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...only one in the world who can arrange this event," boasted San Diego Opera Director Tito Capobianco. Indeed, Capobianco's Die Fledermaus was an operatic double play: the first time Queen Coloraturas Beverly Sills, 51, and Joan Sutherland, 53, have appeared onstage together, and the last time Sills will appear in a full-length opera. Of course, few would have considered asking two divas to, Mozart forbid, share the same spotlight. Says Sills: "We still don't know if Tito asked Joan first and told her I had said yes, or asked me first and told...
...color scheme of the Fledermaus ball at Boston's stately Copley Plaza was black and white, but the 400 guests were blue. For the affair marked Bubbles' Beantown finale, the last Boston appearance for Soprano Beverly Sills, who had just sung Rosalinda in the Strauss opera. Sills' white dress balanced Director Sarah Caldwell's black gown, but not Caldwell's mood as she pooh-poohed the notion that Sills would be happy as non-performing director of the New York City Opera. Predicted Caldwell: "Your voice has a voice...
...Fledermaus. Johann Strauss distilled the spirit of Imperial Vienna into an operetta with the intoxicating effect of champagne. Unfortunately, Lowell House Opera's production takes a cast of basically fine voices and runs them out of Vienna, and into a wilderness of farce and tastelessness...
...waltzes that flow through Strauss's score are irresistibly infectious, though, even when played with frazzled spirits, as at Lowell. But aside from the dance music, J. Scott Brumit's direction denies Fledermaus's Viennese essence and replaces it with nothing--leaving the actors with a clashing variety of interpretations, including '70s disco, '30s Nazi and Steve Martin...
Opera--even light opera--is pretty tough for college students to put on, however, and if you're a Strauss buff or just can't resist live vocal music, Lowell's Fledermaus might be worth it. But if you're not a vocal nut, and think you'd depend on stage qualities to hold your attention, stay away...