STAGE TUBE: Die Fledermaus: 'All I Want Is More Champagne'

A new production of Johann Strauss Jr.'s New Year's Eve classic, the comedic operetta Die Fledermaus, will open at the Met tonight, December 31, with two Broadway stars appearing. Check out the excerpt from Act II of Johann Strauss's "Die Fledermaus" with Jane Archibald (Adele), Anthony Roth Costanzo (Orlofsky), Christopher Maltman (Eisenstein).

Danny Burstein and Betsy Wolfe will make their Met debuts in the production, starring as the drunken jailer, Frosch, and Adele's sister, Ida, respectively.

Jeremy Sams, writer and creator of the Met's Baroque pastiche, The Enchanted Island, makes his company debut as director with the new staging, which is set in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. Sams also contributes new lyrics for Strauss's work, which will be performed entirely in English; Tony Award-nominated playwright Douglas Carter Beanemakes his Met debut with new dialogue. Adam Fischer conducts a cast of rising opera stars and Broadway performers. The cast is led by Susanna Phillips and Christopher Maltman as the unhappily married Rosalinde and Eisenstein; Jane Archibald as Rosalinde's feisty maid, Adele;Anthony Roth Costanzo as Prince Orlofsky; Michael Fabiano as Rosalinde's former lover, Alfred; Paulo Szot as the bumbling Dr. Falke; and Patrick Carfizzi as the prison superintendent, Frank.

Robert Jones is set and costume designer for the production, with lighting design by Jennifer Schriever and choreography by Stephen Mear in their Met debuts.

This will be the Met's fourth production of Die Fledermaus, which had its company premiere in 1905. Tonight's December 31 opening performance will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74, as will the performances on January 11 and 15, and February 13 and 20. The December 31 and February 13 performances will also be streamed live on the Met's website, www.metopera.org.

The January 11 matinee performance will be broadcast live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network.

For more information on this season's performances of Die Fledermaus, please visit the Met's website at www.metopera.org.

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