With productions of Die Fledermaus(always has been my personal favourite of all operettas) most fizz like musical champagne, a prime example being the classic 1984 ROH production(the 1972 and 1986 ones are equally great), and then there are those that fall flat. This Bastille production is marginally better than the 1962 film and 2003 Salzburg performance but is from personal view one of the weakest productions of Die Fledermaus. Of course there are high spots, the orchestral playing is wonderful throughout especially in Act 2(one just wishes that the energy that was in the music was matched on stage alas), the chorus singing is zestful and their expressions lively and the conducting from Amin Jourdan allows the music to bounce along. There are a few good performances on display, the best coming from Marlis Petersen as a very pert and amusing Adele. There are funnier Alfreds than Eduardo Villa but he shows a voice that is characterful and appealing in sound and his personality is likable, while Marian Pop is a menacing- without overplaying- Falke with the best voice of the male principals and William Joyner is a stylish singer and doesn't make Eisenstein too dull or cruel.
Was mixed on Marina Omashenko, because while every element of her singing was spot-on it was difficult to comment on her acting because she was given so little to do. Adina Nitescu has a wonderful voice that carries well and does have some charm to her, but a lot of her performance as Rosalinde is too stand-and-deliver and some of the chemistry between her and others didn't seem to connect. Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke overplays as Dr Blind and the less said about the irritating Frosch of Gilles Privat the better, Frosch should be disgruntled and annoyed in Act 3 to me and Privat plays him like someone escaped from a lunatic asylum. The visual look of the production was not very appealing. Most of the sets and lighting were very dreary, some of the worst of it actually being in Act 2 where it should be opulent and regarding the costumes the only ones really that actually didn't come off as weird or colourless were for Eisenstein and Falke. The prison outfits in Act 3 looked ridiculously over-sized(Frosch's was the worst offender), some of the dresses would look more at home at a funeral than a ball and there seemed to be a mish-mash style-wise, the contemporary dance attire for the dancers looking like they wandered onto the stage by mistake. The make-up seemed overdone too, against the dim lighting some looked like mime artists which was disconcerting.
But it was the staging that was especially poor here. It's not as distasteful as that for Salzburg but there are some touches that do not come off well at all and I didn't feel any joy or feel entertained a vast majority of the time. The spoken lines were acted out too broadly for my liking- especially Frosch, some of Orlofsky's line delivery sounded like that of a pantomime dame as well(not meant as an offence)- making the comedy feel forced rather than natural, and other than the dancing the chorus stage direction was static as was some of the interaction between the principals, the chemistry between Eisenstein and Falke was the only chemistry that was somewhat believable. There are even times in the productions where the story-telling is not very clear even for a viewer who has seen Die Fledermaus many times and has never had trouble following the story at all, most notably Eisenstein not being able to recognise his own wife when Nitescu and Petersen look nothing alike plus Nitescu is very poorly disguised with only a pair of glasses. Particularly bad though were the direction of Orlofsky and the dancers. The idea to have Orlofsky as supposedly a seriously ill man held no relevance to the story at all and didn't hold water for a second, mainly because Omaschenko looking too energetic and acting too healthily for one and also because it was clear that the stage director just put this touch there and had no idea what to do with it. The dancing was skilfully danced but the choreography(contemporary choreography against classical music felt like a disconnected style clash) didn't really mesh with the music at all(the break-dancing/hip-hop section would look completely out of place in any other production of Die Fledermaus) and it actually ground the production to a screeching halt.
All in all, Die Fledermaus is one of the best operettas there is(THE greatest personally) but it deserved a much better production than this visually unappealing, joyless and sometimes distasteful one. 4/10(and that is mostly for the musical values). Bethany Cox
Was mixed on Marina Omashenko, because while every element of her singing was spot-on it was difficult to comment on her acting because she was given so little to do. Adina Nitescu has a wonderful voice that carries well and does have some charm to her, but a lot of her performance as Rosalinde is too stand-and-deliver and some of the chemistry between her and others didn't seem to connect. Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke overplays as Dr Blind and the less said about the irritating Frosch of Gilles Privat the better, Frosch should be disgruntled and annoyed in Act 3 to me and Privat plays him like someone escaped from a lunatic asylum. The visual look of the production was not very appealing. Most of the sets and lighting were very dreary, some of the worst of it actually being in Act 2 where it should be opulent and regarding the costumes the only ones really that actually didn't come off as weird or colourless were for Eisenstein and Falke. The prison outfits in Act 3 looked ridiculously over-sized(Frosch's was the worst offender), some of the dresses would look more at home at a funeral than a ball and there seemed to be a mish-mash style-wise, the contemporary dance attire for the dancers looking like they wandered onto the stage by mistake. The make-up seemed overdone too, against the dim lighting some looked like mime artists which was disconcerting.
But it was the staging that was especially poor here. It's not as distasteful as that for Salzburg but there are some touches that do not come off well at all and I didn't feel any joy or feel entertained a vast majority of the time. The spoken lines were acted out too broadly for my liking- especially Frosch, some of Orlofsky's line delivery sounded like that of a pantomime dame as well(not meant as an offence)- making the comedy feel forced rather than natural, and other than the dancing the chorus stage direction was static as was some of the interaction between the principals, the chemistry between Eisenstein and Falke was the only chemistry that was somewhat believable. There are even times in the productions where the story-telling is not very clear even for a viewer who has seen Die Fledermaus many times and has never had trouble following the story at all, most notably Eisenstein not being able to recognise his own wife when Nitescu and Petersen look nothing alike plus Nitescu is very poorly disguised with only a pair of glasses. Particularly bad though were the direction of Orlofsky and the dancers. The idea to have Orlofsky as supposedly a seriously ill man held no relevance to the story at all and didn't hold water for a second, mainly because Omaschenko looking too energetic and acting too healthily for one and also because it was clear that the stage director just put this touch there and had no idea what to do with it. The dancing was skilfully danced but the choreography(contemporary choreography against classical music felt like a disconnected style clash) didn't really mesh with the music at all(the break-dancing/hip-hop section would look completely out of place in any other production of Die Fledermaus) and it actually ground the production to a screeching halt.
All in all, Die Fledermaus is one of the best operettas there is(THE greatest personally) but it deserved a much better production than this visually unappealing, joyless and sometimes distasteful one. 4/10(and that is mostly for the musical values). Bethany Cox
