3. Similar to Handel, Strauss’s
father did not want him to
become a musician;
nevertheless, he studied the
violin secretly as a child.
4. Strauss was a composer known
especially for his waltzes, such as
The Blue Danube (An der schönen
blauen Donau) and for his most
popular opera, Die Fledermaus
(The Bat).
5. The Blue Danube:
The instrumental version is by far
the most commonly performed
waltz in the world today.
6. Due to his worldwide success with
The Blue Danube, Strauss became
known as “The Waltz King.”
7. Die Fledermaus is a comic operetta. Despite
being an operetta, it is claimed by Opera
America to be the nineteenth most
performed “opera" in North America.
8. The Baron von Eisenstein has been committed to prison for eight days for
insulting an official, partly through the inefficiency of his attorney, the
stuttering Notary Blind, and is to begin his imprisonment this day. His friend,
Dr. Falke, however, persuades him to postpone it until the morrow and to
accompany him to a ball at the residence of Prince Orlofsky, where he will
meet the handsome ladies of the opera ballet. Falke had been at a masked ball
the previous winter, costumed as a bat, and had been compelled by Eisenstein
to walk to his home in broad daylight to the joy and amusement of the
populace. He hopes to find an opportunity for vengeance at the coming ball.
Eisenstein accepts the invitation, and telling his wife he is going to prison, and
taking a mournful farewell of her and the maid Adèle, hastens with Falke to
the ball. After his departure Rosalinde, his wife, is visited by a former
admirer, the singing teacher, Alfred, whose behaviour is rather free. The
night has set in and Frank, the governor of the prison, has come to take
Eisenstein to jail. He finds Alfred taking his ease attired in a smoking jacket,
and he, in order not to compromise Rosalinde, moved by her prayers, is
induced to represent himself as Eisenstein and to accompany Frank.
9. Falke has also invited the governor of the prison, Frank, the maid Adèle, and
to complete the joke, Rosalinde, to be his guests at the ball. The latter, in
order to observe her husband, appears masked. She is introduced by Falke as
an Hungarian countess, and succeeds in abstracting from the pockets of her
husband his valuable watch, to use in the future as evidence of his
impropriety. Frank has paid court to Adèle, and the next morning they all
find themselves in prison, when the confusion increases, for Falke has
introduced Eisenstein as Marquis Renard, Frank as Chevalier Chagrin and
Adèle as an actress. It is still further increased by the jailer, Frosch, who has
profited by the absence of the prison director to become gloriously drunk.
Adèle arrives to obtain the assistance of the Chevalier Chagrin, Eisenstein to
begin his prison term, Alfred wants to get out of jail, Rosalinde to commence
action for divorce, and Frank is still intoxicated. Frosch locks up Adèle and
her sister Ida, and the height of the tumult has been reached when Falke
arrives with all the guests of the ball and declares the whole as an act of
vengeance for the "Fledermaus." Everything is amicably arranged, but
Eisenstein is compelled to serve his full term in jail.
