Johann Strauss junior’s Die Fledermaus is the work with which the Greek National Opera will celebrate its 80th anniversary. This is not a random choice, as the famous operetta was the inaugural work of the Greek National Opera that premiered on the stage of the National Theatre on March 5, 1940. Die Fledermaus has been timelessly loved by its audience as a comic opera with an imaginative plot and exceptional music themes that go beyond the stereotypes of the Viennese opera.
Die Fledermaus is an operetta in 3 acts that portrays a luxurious and dizzying world where splendor and mirth, flirting, intrigue, and misunderstandings rule. Everything takes place during a wild night at the end of which the misunderstandings are finally resolved and it is revealed that the whole evening is nothing more than an elaborate prank. This production, directed by Alexandros Efklidis, transfers the action of the work to the bourgeois living rooms of Athens and the cabanas of the Asteras Vouliagmenis Resort, during the ’60s.
Johann Strauss junior (his father, Johann Strauss senior, was also a composer) is considered to be “The Waltz King”. Despite his father’s objections, by the age of 30, Strauss junior managed to gain more fame than his father and even the popular operetta composer Jacques Offenbach. He composed Die Fledermaus in 1874 and in 1894 the renowned composer and conductor Gustav Mahler produced it at the Hamburg Opera House, raising the artistic status of Strauss’ work and confirming that he believed in his talent as many other great musicians did including Brahms, Wagner, and Ravel.
The production will be conducted by Yorgos Ziavras, while the soloists include Yannis Kalyvas, Nikos Kotenidis, Dimitris Paksoglou, Eleni Calenos, Anna Stylianaki, Artemis Bogri and many more. The chorus will be conducted by Agathangelos Georgakatos.