Review of Die Fledermaus – Strauss steps well done and frosty, but not enough fizz | Opera

Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus may have done more to sell champagne than any other operetta. A good production, however, also requires a lot of fizz, but the bubbles start to rise very late in the afternoon at Opera Holland Park’s new show.

Director and choreographer Liam Steel uses the Metropolitan Opera’s 2013 English version with lyrics by Jeremy Sams and a new book by Douglas Carter Beane. His chosen location, however, is London on New Year’s Eve 1929; references to Sitwell and Mitford. In his determination to show everything that goes with the spirit of the times, he cites a joke that Winston Churchill competed with Ivor Novello (how did he get that? “Musical,” says an apocryphal legend.)

Where it doesn’t quite succeed is playing this myth of bourgeois infidelity and misidentification. With its free standing frames, Neil Irish of Eisensteins salon feels very rich. When placed in front of the musicians on the OHP stand, it allows the musicians to interact more closely with the audience. The second deco room with its gilded Degas centerpiece flourishes, but, being just behind the stage, the company feels very remote. It remains for him to perform three times, in a police station full of affable moustachioed bobby (a great performance by Robert Burt), to raise the number he deserves.

Steel does his best, throwing out the trash of the game, and Sams’ funny words are fun: “Have another drink with me, you’ve never had a drink and I’ve had three,” sings the libidinous Alfred (student and qualified Italian Xavier Hetherington). The play may be inconsistent – the action starts at Acorn Antiques a bit – but there are strong performances from Rebecca Bottone as the cock-wearing representative Adele and Julien Van Mellaerts as Dr Falke who is touched by midnight blue velvet and dazzling earrings. Matthew Siveter plays Inspector Frank as a no-nonsense Yorkshireman with a good line in a confused voice. His meeting at the ball with Thomas Atkins’ Eisenstein, where they both look French and communicate in phrases like “coq au vin” and “menage a trois”, gets a well-deserved laugh.

George Jackson conducts the London Sinfonia brilliantly, although the music is often too loud for the orchestra. However, there are strong performances from Alison Langer as Rosalinde, Clare Presland as the fluid Orlofsky and especially Bottone, who nails the Laughing Song. Special mention also goes to Olivia Carrell for her thankless performance as Ida, the chorus girl from Where’s My Willie.