Die Fledermaus

Want the polar opposite of the Vienna Opera?  Go to Salzburg!  We just saw Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at the Landestheater.  How best to explain this – have you seen the opera?  Read the libretto?  Or just checked out the synopsis on Wikipedia?  The masked ball takes place on an Emirates Air flight, including the ballet scene made up of flight attendants.  Prince Orlovsky is a sheik.  The tete-a-tete in which Rosalinde relieves Eisenstein of his watch appears to be a Mile High Club membership in the WC.  The champagne song has oxygen masks dropping from the flies.  There are parachutes.  Confetti lands on the audience.  Four guys rip off their shirts.  And the European Union is both mocked and celebrated with references to ouzo, Athens Champagne, and a bunch of stuff we didn’t get because it was in German.  It could be argued that the actual music was better in Vienna, but Salzburg has them beat on costumes, sets, pantomime, makeup (no hideous blackface), dance, color, and joie de vivre.  Plus, the opera house here in Salzburg isn’t insanely hot, and the bottled water is cheaper.