9 hours ago
Die Fledermaus review — a drag queen saves Strauss from disaster
If all else fails, send for a drag queen. That appears to be the thinking at the Grange Festival in Hampshire, where a far from convincing production of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus is rescued by the cabaret artiste Myra DuBois — usually found doing stand-up at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London.
Playing the jailer Frosch, who traditionally opens the final act with an improvised monologue, DuBois delivers a string of fruity innuendos and some chaos-generating ad libs that finally get the audience laughing, something that Paul Curran's stuttering staging has largely failed to do up to then. Strenuous overacting from others in the cast doesn't help, and neither does having the dramatic flow disrupted by two hours of intervals — excessive even by country-house opera standards, especially for an operetta with acts no longer than 40 minutes each.
Presumably that's to allow time for Gary McCann's detailed 1930s sets to be swapped around. The garish nightclub decor for Act II is particularly striking. And indeed that is where Curran's direction works best, with a chorus of crossdressers and leather-boys high-kicking energetically and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra racing through the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka under Paul Daniel's breezy direction to add to the score's melodic riches.
But it's hard to do a decent Die Fledermaus with a Rosalinde (Sylvia Schwartz) who hardly has enough voice to be heard in duets, let alone to set the sparks flying in her Czardas solo; and her maid Adele played by a singer, Ellie Laugharne, who seems unable to inject charm and grace into that usually delectable showstopper, Mein Herr Marquis. Admittedly, Laugharne doesn't help herself by trying to keep up a completely unnecessary Eliza Doolittle accent even when singing — a disaster for her vocal tone.
Trystan Llyr Griffiths, playing Rosalinde's Italian lover Alfred, bursts into snatches of famous tenor arias at every available opportunity, and sings them with such panache that I wouldn't mind seeing him do the parts for real. Ben McAteer is an impressive Falke; when he and the chorus deliver a hushed and tender Brüderlein it's the only really magical moment in the evening. The rest of the cast try desperately hard to be amusing, but the show resolutely fails to catch fire until far too late.★★☆☆☆250minTo Jul 5, @timesculture to read the latest reviews
