Die Fledermaus

Die Fledermaus (The Bat) is a comic operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée. It premièred on April 5, 1874 at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Austria.

Sources

The original source for Die Fledermaus is a farce by German playwright Julius Roderich Benedix (1811–1873), Das Gefängnis (The Prison). Another source is a French vaudeville play, Le Réveillon, by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Their play was first translated by Carl Haffner as a straight play to be produced in Vienna. However, the peculiarly French custom of the réveillon (a midnight supper party) caused problems, which were solved by the decision to adapt the play as a libretto for Johann Strauss, with the réveillon replaced by a Viennese ball. At this point Haffner's translation was handed over for adaptation to Richard Genée, who subsequently claimed not only that he had made a fresh translation from scratch but that he had never even met Haffner.

Related Topics:
Farce - German - Julius Roderich Benedix - 1811 - 1873 - French - Vaudeville - Henri Meilhac - Ludovic Halévy - Carl Haffner

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