Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast: Die Fledermaus 

 

THE CAST     (in order of vocal appearance)  Dr. Falke     baritone, JOHN BROWNLEE Alfred     tenor, RICHARD TUCKER Adele     soprano, PATRICE MUNSEL Rosalinde     soprano, MARGUERITE PIAZZA Gabriel von Eisenstein     tenor, CHARLES KULLMAN Dr. Blind     tenor, PAUL FRANKE Frank     baritone, HUGH THOMPSON Ida     dancer, NANA GOLLNER Prince     Orlofsky mezzo, RISË STEVENS Frosch     actor, JACK GILFORD   Conducted by EUGENE ORMANDY   The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra The Metropolitan Opera Chorus   Production: Garson Kanin Set & costume designer: Rolf Gérard Choreography: Anthony Tudor Chorus master: Kurt Adler

THE SCENES       A spa near Vienna, late 19th c. ACT     I Eisenstein's drawing room ACT     II Prince Orlofsky's villa ACT     III Inside the jail   Host: Margaret Juntwait Commentator: Ira Siff Music producer: Jay David Saks Producers: Mary Jo Heath, Ellen Keel,     William Berger Executive producers: Mia Bongiovanni,      Elena Park   For more information on the broadcasts,  please visit www.operainfo.org.   Send quiz questions to:     Metropolitan Opera Quiz     Metropolitan Opera     30 Lincoln Center     New York, NY 10023,      or e-mail metquiz@metopera.org.   This performance is also being broadcast live      on Metropolitan Opera Radio     on SiriusXM channel 74.

Hit of the show: Munsel as Adele Bender photography

Die Fledermaus had been absent from the Met's repertory for forty-five years when Rudolf Bing — then in his first season as general manager — decided to mount a new English-language production of Johann Strauss II's 1874 farce, one of the treasures of Vienna's "golden age" of operetta. Garson Kanin (1912–99), an American playwright, screenwriter and director with an impressive string of credits in the theater (Born Yesterday) and in Hollywood (My Favorite Wife, Adam's Rib), provided the Met with snappy, Broadway-style staging and dialogue; Howard Dietz (1896–1983), co-author of more than a dozen Broadway musicals and revues, wrote the new Fledermaus lyrics. Eugene Ormandy (1899–1985), music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted.

Kanin's Fledermaus, which had its premiere in December 1950, was a huge success for the Met, with nineteen sold-out performances in New York and another twelve on tour. The singer who made the hit of the show was Spokane-born Patrice Munsel (b. 1925), perfectly cast as the saucy chambermaid Adele. Most of the ensemble for the January 1951 Fledermaus broadcast were veterans of the Kanin staging's premiere, with the exception of the Rosalinde and the Eisenstein — Louisianan soprano Marguerite Piazza (b. 1926), then in her first and only season on the Met roster, and Connecticut-born lyric tenor Charles Kullman (1903–83), whose 421 Met performances in twenty-five seasons included forty-two Eisensteins.

Risë Stevens (b. 1913), one of the Met's most glamorous stars, was Kanin’s Prince Orlofsky; this broadcast marks the last of Stevens's six Met performances of the role, which she disliked. American tenor Richard Tucker (1913–75), cast as the ardent Alfred, also had a limited association with Fledermaus, which accounted for just six of his 738 Met performances. Australian John Brownlee (1900–69), a Met baritone since 1937, was a more regular Fledermaus presence, with a total of fifty-eight turns as the wily Dr. Falke in New York and on tour. Kanin’s first Frosch was the incomparable Jack Gilford (1908–90), who eventually appeared in seventy-seven Met Fledermaus performances and directed the Met's 1967 revival of the operetta.  

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