By Andrew Clark [Financial Times,1 March 2011]
The British have almost as big a problem with Viennese operetta as they do with French. It’s a question of style and tone. Sung in English, Die Fledermaus invariably turns into an old-fashioned comedy of class, with cut-glass accents for Eisenstein and his cronies and something “regional” for Frosch the gaoler. It never works, because even a century ago the English upper class had nothing like the insouciance of Johann Strauss’s haute bourgeoisie. The comedy ends up stiff and contrived.