Die Fledermaus

Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus has maintained its position as the most popular despository of frothy melodies which Viennese operetta has given to the general body of Western culture. The romantic triangle of Rosalinda, her husband Eisenstein, and her lover Alfred needs only a good translation to be perfectly comprehensible and extraordinarily funny to an English-speaking audience. The translation used in the South Shore Music Circus production, which opened in Cohasset on Monday evening, lacks most of the virtues of the original German and makes many condescensions to popular taste.

The comedy interpolations in the South Shore production often prove humorous and tasteful, such as jailhouse monologue of Frosch, played broadly but brilliantly by Bernie West. Adele's embarrassingly inept behavior at the ball justifies itself by her status. But the folksy, hail-fellow-well met lyrics of Howard Dietz have no business being used in any production of Die Fledermaus which attempts to capture the flavor of the original or to offer any amount of the necessary stylization.

In Mr. Dietz's translation, which the program asserts is the official Metropolitan opera translation, the brother-sister ensemblebecomes "Happy Days"-no longer the intricate abandonment of social decorum for an evening of fun, but a sentimental lyric saved from being maudlin only by the power of the music. The lyrics of the Champagne Song come out "Then Up with the Wine," and the veryprecise "Meinherr marquis" is translated "Look Me Over Once." Both the alternate Metropolitan Opera translation and the new Sadler's Wells translation by Christopher Hassell are preferable to the Dietz translation, and it is this fault that most mars the production at Cohasset.

A second difficulty can be complained of little: the small orchestra necessitated by a theatre-in-the-round can hardly hope to cope with the Fledermaus overture, one of the treasures of light musical literature. All in all, Rudolph Bennet handles his small forces in the pit with considerable skill. The acoustics are good in the South Shore tent, and the voices were audible.

The stylish acting and singing of Lucille Smith as Rosalinda and Jon Crain as Eisenstein do much to overcome the difficulties imposed by the casual mood of the translation. Miss Smith's Rosalinda displays not only a fine sense of timing and a fine aristocratic sense of propriety and impropriety, but also the unusual type voice required. Rosalinda must have a dark and strong lower range, complemented by a brilliant top and a sure coloratura technique. Miss Smith displayed both, ending her Czardas with a brilliant high B. Mr. Crain has obviously had experience in his part--he uses his strong tenor voice to advantage in the ensembles, and his ebullient comedy leaves little to be desired.

The smaller parts are all done very well. The standout is the Orlofsky of Jean Sanders, a wonderfully stylized caricature. Miss Sanders seems every inch a professional, and her rich contralto gives "Chacun a son gout" just the right flavor. Both costumes and settings show up well under an especially good lighting system, and entrances and exits are managed exactly on cue without some of the fuss that attends; them in some theatre-in-the-round productions. One could wish for a more authentic, more piquant savor to the lyrics, but Die Fledermaus remains much like Gilbert and Sullivan: there is much pleasure however and whenever it is done.