Premiered on April 5, 1874 at the Theater an der Wien, The Bat is arguably Vienna’s most popular operetta, often considered Strauss’ masterpiece. It satirically presents the bourgeois customs of the Belle Époque through a dance-like, refined and sparkling music, thanks to a whirlwind of waltzes, polkas or csárdás. The all-Quebec cast will take you through a crazy night of quiproquos, intrigues and revenge with all the frivolity, vivacity and subtlety necessary to charm you.
In Vienna, the rich Prince Orlofsky is deeply bored. To distract himself, he gives a masquerade: Dr. Falke; Gabriel von Eisenstein; his wife Rosalinda, disguised as a Hungarian princess; Adèle, her maid… everyone is there, under a variety of pretexts. Eisenstein seduces all the women he meets, including his own, whom he does not recognize. Eisenstein, under legal trouble for having hit a policeman, returns to prison to serve his sentence. And lo and behold, the guests arrive one after the other… and the events are precipitated: Adele charms the prison warden, Rosalinda confronts her husband and confesses that the evening is nothing more than a prank planned by Falke: it’s the revenge of the bat!
French version with French surtitles
With the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and the Opéra de Québec chorus