Strauss, J. : Die Fledermaus

This version of Die Fledermaus, is an all-round excellent performance. I have a personal interest in the operetta: it was composed in the house in Vienna where my father grew up in, and which is now owned by my cousin. The conductor, Carlos Kleiber, who passed away in July 2004, was little known, but he showed he could lead in an interpretation of the operetta in the spirit that it was written in. The persons on the stage had the fortunate combination to be both excellent singers and excellent actors. The production, by Otto Schenk, is the same that has been used at the Wiener Staatsoper and the Metropolitan Opera. There is one small drawback: the beginning of Act III has a few spoken lines by the jailer, Frosch, which are comments on what was happening at the location and time this DVD was recorded: live on 31 December 1986 in the Munich Nationaltheater. Aside from this minor point, I highly recommend this DVD especially if one has not seen Die Fledermaus before; if another version has been seen then this is an excellent version to compare it to.