THE words of Simon Butteriss and the lyrics of the late, great, John Mortimer – with a few of the greatest hits of Johann Strauss – is a recipe for comic opera heaven, and that is what audiences at IfOpera at Belcombe Court in Bradford-on-Avon enjoyed this season.

Simon Butteriss was a favourite in the Harold Peto cloister at Iford in productions with Opera della Luna in the early 2000s. He directed and performed this same Strauss adaptation in May 2019 at Bath’s Guildhall, in the same year that Iford Opera moved to the beautiful Belcombe Court for L’Elisir D’Amore. So it is fitting that his delightful show also brings to an end the initial stop for the (newly named) IfOpera at Belcombe. The company moves to Church Farm, Wingfield for the 2025 season.

The original Strauss operetta has a long and complicated tale of marital infidelity, boorish behaviour and comic plots involving masks and hidden identities. Much of this, Butteriss (as the lawyer Dr Blind) truncates with a witty and inventive script – how many of the audience realised they were listening to Oscar Hammerstein II rather than Strauss’s librettist, as the reason for the chiropteran title?

The narration is a constant delight, allowing the leading characters to dazzle with their operatic prowess as the familiar tunes follow one after the other. The arrival of a tenor from the other 2024 IfOpera production, Lucia di Lammermoor, singing that well-known Italian folk song*
Funiculi Funicula, allows the whole cast to join in a merry choo-choo dance. It is hilarious.

The audience on the final night of Die Fledermaus had the added treat of watching soprano Galina Averina, who had lost her voice, acting the role while chorus member Megan Strachan sang it from behind a pillar, and you’d never have known she stepped into the role barely eight hours before curtain up. That’s truly professional opera singers for you!

Edward Leach, with his flowing locks and unusually tall stature for a tenor, was a totally convincing Eisenstein, and Anna Fassea thrilled the excited audience with her performance as the scheming maid Adele. Bethany Horak Hallet’s ambiguous Orlofsky allowed Mr Butteriss a welcome swipe at the pronoun debate, adding to the humour of the ridiculous situation. It all comes out right at the end, just as it does in The Marriage of Figaro. As the director notes, the Mozart is regarded as a classic, while the Strauss version of much the same story is relegated to the realms of worthless frippery. Simon Butteriss and his excellent cast prove that if it’s done with relish, Die Fledermaus is a joy for all the audience, and one they will long remember.

GP-W

* Luigi Denza wrote Funiculi Funicula to celebrate the opening of the first funicular railway on Mount Vesuvius in 1880. Richard Strauss heard the song six years later, thought it was a traditional folksong and incorporated it in his Aus Italien tone poem. Danza sued … and won.

Photographs by Craig Fuller Photography for If Opera