Bat-and-Fun-infested Fledermaus

Paul Curran and Paul Daniel dish up an operetta treat at The Grange Festival

Having a (masked) ball: Sylvia Schwartz (Rosalinde), Andrew Hamilton (Eisenstein) Picture © Richard Hubert Smith

There is a long tradition of invited guests performing star turns at Prince Orlofsky’s champagne-fuelled party in Act Two of Die Fledermaus (The Bat), but at the opening night of the Grange Festival’s new production of Johann Strauss II’s most successful opera, the ‘guest’ was uninvited, and didn’t appear until Act III: a bat careened around the auditorium and above the performers onstage in Colonel Frank’s prison. The poor creature must have forgotten its cue at the party.

As Paul Daniel launched the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra into the famous Overture, it immediately became clear that the festival had struck operetta gold and silver. This was Daniel’s second collaboration at this address with the Scottish director, Paul Curran. In 2023 they worked together on an acclaimed staging of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades which I did not see. Curran is one of the most underrated directors of his generation, a regular guest in some of Italy’s most important theatres, but virtually a prophet unsung in his own land. True, he’s had a couple of flops, but his Tsar’s Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov) at Covent Garden, Death in Venice and The Bartered Bride for Garsington Opera can all be counted on the credit side. This greatly enjoyable Fledermaus, spectacularly and ingeniously designed by Gary McCann and lit by Johanna Town, can be added to the tally of Curran’s smash hits.