The Met's sumptuous New Year's present, this Johann Strauss operetta, just keeps on giving.  The bane of a few opera purists, "Fledermaus" features almost as much dialogue as it does singing, and it dares to be funny, and lighthearted in its romance.  Based as it was on a French vaudeville, "The Bat," with its broad mixture of entertainment styles—from cross-dressing (Prince Orlofsky is almost always played by a woman) to folk dancing (the heroine Rosalinde pretends to be an Hungarian countess by orchestrating an elaborate czardas), it positively cries out for a mixture of approaches in its staging.  The whole Strauss score is a masterpiece of operetta, incorporating a rapturous overture, his trademark waltz and such other diverse forms as drinking song and soubrette-ish satire.
 
This lavish and lilting production, no less than "Fledermuas" deserves, is sung in German but spoken in English, markedly separating the songs from the dialogue, as in earlier musical comedy.  This allows us to see and revel in the direct influences of this show on later Broadway musicals, especially those set in roughly the same era—the late 19th or early 20th centuries.  For example, the delightful Rosemary Joshua plays Adele the maid straight out of "My Fair Lady," moving in speech and demeanor from cockney maid to faux grand lady.  (She even pays homage to the latter show as she says to Prince Orlofsky, upon entering his party, "How kind of you to let me come".)  During the czardas, the party's waiters do a dance that is a clear precursor of the waiters' dance in "Hello Dolly".  The "Fledermuas"  ode to Champagne shows up again in "Gigi".

Conductor Philippe Jordan, making his Met debut, is perfectly in tune with the production's bifurcated approach to words and music.  Director Otto Schenk has accomplished an admirable and interesting triple here; in addition to helming, he co-wrote the dialogue and he induces fits of laughter playing the drunken jailer Frosch in the third act.  Other standout performances include those of Jennifer Larmore as Orlofsky, Solveig Kringelborn as Rosalinde and Peter Coleman-Wright as the go-between and emcee.

On New Year's Eve, Coleman-Wright had a lot to emcee, and much of it underscored the Broadway tone of the evening.  The second-act party scene guest stars included Karita Mattila, who sang "Wunderbar" from "Kiss Me Kate".  Deborah Voigt sang "Falling in Love with Love" and "Do I Hear a Waltz?".  At the after-party she even did "Ice Cream", Barbara Cook's signature song from "She Loves Me". Dmitri Hvorotovsky, the Met's baritone matinee idol, sang "O Sole Mio", while a shimmering Denyse Graves delivered "Blues in the Night".  Stephanie Blythe delivered "Shy" from "Once Upon a Mattress", proving that she's definitely not.


Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center, Broadway at 65th Street 362-6000