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Opera
by Jeff GoffinDie Fledermaus
Calgary Opera
March 25, 29 and 31
Jubilee AuditoriumDie Fledermaus is a light-hearted piece with a philandering husband, a cheating wife, a masked ball and mistaken identities.
It is Vienna in the 1890s and Rosalinda is in love with Alfred. She particularly loves his "high notes." When her husband Eisenstein is sentenced to spend a night in jail, she takes advantage of his absence to accompany Alfred to the extravagant masked ball held by the Russian Prince Orlofsky. Meanwhile, Eisenstein plans to avoid the constables and attend the same ball in disguise. At the same time, the chamber maid, Adele, borrows one of Rosalinda’s gowns and poses as a lady to attend the ball. Add to the mix an old friend, Dr. Falke, with a grudge against Eisenstein, and a prison warden who mistakes Alfred for the man he has come to arrest and the result is comic chaos.
"It’s actually more complicated in telling it than watching it unfold," explains Calgarian Norine Burgess, who will appear in Die Fledermaus.
A graduate of the University of Calgary and the University of Toronto’s Opera School, Burgess has an impressive string of credits including appearances with the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Manitoba Opera and Edmonton Opera. No stranger to Calgary Opera, she’s thrilled to return to Calgary and particularly to the Jubilee Auditorium, where she "learned to sing."
Continuing a long-standing gender-bending tradition, Burgess will play the role of the Russian Prince Orlofsky.
"This was a pretty normal convention in the 19th century to have women with slightly lower voices play the roles of boys or young men. I do it all the time because that’s the kind of voice I have. I spend more time in pants than I do in dresses! But it’s fun because it’s a dramatic challenge to persuade people that you’re not what you are."
Die Fledermaus is particularly suited for newcomers to opera.
"It’s an operetta," says Burgess. "It’s what they used to call a musical before musicals existed. It means that there’s dialogue and music interspersed in that. There’s dancing and some of the action happens in songs."
Though the plot of Die Fledermaus may be complicated, Calgary audiences should have no difficulty following it. Originally written in German, the Calgary Opera production is being presented in an English translation and will feature the use of projected subtitles throughout.
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