Die Fledermaus review – Strauss’s perennial classic is slickly realigned

Director Simon Butteriss’s take differs from the usual: the sung words were John Mortimer’s familiar translation, but Butteriss’s dramatic narration replaced the spoken dialogue, ostensibly to clarify the various plot threads. He delivered the narration in the character of lawyer Dr Blind with customary style, darting in and out of the action, yet the liberal sprinkling of double entendres and jokey references to Freud didn’t get as many laughs as it could have done. Furthermore, excising the non-singing character of Frosch altogether left the third act without its normal comic-turn, no bad thing given that it can too easily fall flat. This realigning of some of the comedy meant playing up the elements of farce, both in the stage business and when the singers, cheerfully sending themselves up, break into dance.