Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Strauss: Die Fledermaus

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

Just as Handel's Messiah has been traditionally linked to Christmas, the ebullient Viennese operetta Die Fledermaus (1874), with its grand ball in the second act, harmonizes perfectly with New Year's Eve festivities. (Then there's the hung-over third act that has its association with New Year's Day.) Die Fledermaus is the most famous Viennese operetta of the Golden Age of the genre, and the undoubted masterpiece of "The Waltz King" Johann Strauss.

I have often broadcast recordings of Die Fledermaus right around the New Year. Many of these have been old recordings of historic interest. One such was Decca's 1950 monaural taping, with the legendary native Viennese conductor Clemens Krauss leading the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Chorus. That recording had a cast of Central European operatic greats of the period like soprano Hilde Gueden as Rosalinde. The Decca CD reissue of the original LP release I broadcast not at the New Year, but on Sunday, August 22, 1993.

Hilde Gueden reprised the role of Rosalinde a decade later for Decca's gala stereophonic recording, with Herbert von Karajan conducting the same illustrious Viennese orchestra and chorus. Of particular interest in Decca's 1960 taping is the inclusion of the ballet music in the second act--a number that is usually omitted. This was a rare recording of Strauss' complete score of the operetta. In the 1960 performance the action stops at the end of Act Two for the gala pops concert. The pops concert sequence has been left out of the Pristine label's CD reissue in 2011 of that vintage Decca studio recording, which has excellent sound effects and entirely complimentary background crowd noise during the grand ball.