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Sat., March 17, 2012 – 7:00pm, Concert Hall
Sun., March 18, 2012, 7:30pm, Stiefel Theatre, Salina, KS
by Johann Strauss, Jr.
Libretto by Karl Haffner
and Richard Genée
Approx. running time: 2 hours 50 minutes,
with 2 intermissions
Performed in English
Translation by Marcie Stapp, 1997
Cast, program, and schedule are subject to change.
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OVERVIEW
SYNOPSIS
ARTISTS
SYNOPSIS
ACT I. Vienna. Through the windows of the Eisenstein home floats the serenade of Alfred, a tenor still in love with his old flame Rosalinde, who is now the wife of Gabriel von Eisenstein. Adele, a chambermaid, saunters in reading a letter from her sister Ida, who has invited Adele to join her at a party that night in the home of Prince Orlofsky. Rosalinde, bedeviled by a headache and believing she has heard Alfred's voice, enters but finds only Adele. The maid asks for the evening off to visit a "sick aunt," a plea her mistress quickly dismisses. Frustrated, Adele storms out of the room, allowing Alfred an opportunity to sneak inside to see Rosalinde. She resists his attention and quickly throws him out, but not before he promises to return later. Alfred leaves as Eisenstein and his lawyer, Dr. Blind, arrive from a session in court: Eisenstein has been sentenced to eight days in jail for a civil offense.
No sooner does he dismiss the incompetent advocate than his friend Falke comes to cheer up Gabriel with an invitation to a fancy costume party at Prince Orlofsky’s palace that night. Falke suggests he bring along his repeater stop-watch, which charms all the ladies, so he can accumulate pleasant memories to sustain him during his confinement in jail. Rosalinde joins Adele in a bittersweet farewell to Eisenstein before he goes off to prison dressed up, to his wife's surprise, in full evening dress. Sending Adele away to her "aunt," Rosalinde receives the ardent Alfred. Their tête-à-tête is interrupted by the prison warden Frank, who mistakes Alfred for the man he has come to arrest. Rosalinde persuades Alfred to preserve her honor by posing as her husband, and Frank carts him off to jail.
ACT II. In an antechamber at the palace of Prince Orlofsky, the nobleman's guests, Adele and her cousin Ida among them, await the arrival of their host. Orlofsky enters, quite bored even with Falke's promise of a suberb practical joke. As Eisenstein arrives, disguised as a French nobleman, he sees Adele dressed in one of Rosalinde's most elegant gowns, but she carries off the masquerade by laughing off his suggestion that she resembles his wife's chambermaid. Frank enters, also disguised as a visiting Frenchman, and Rosalinde, tipped off to the evening’s events by Falke, arrives disguised as a temperamental Hungarian countess. She is soon wooed by her own tipsy husband, whose pocket watch she steals to hold as proof of his philandering. Rosalinde agrees to sing a song about her "native" land, a spirited czardas, after which the guests move on to a magnificent dining area to toast the joys of wine, good fellowship and love. Champagne flows, and the guests dance wildly until dawn. When the clock strikes six, Eisenstein staggers off arm-in-arm with his new best friend Frank to keep his appointment at the jail.
ACT III. Moments later at the prison, Frosch, a drunken jailer, tries to keep order among the inmates, who are unable to sleep because of Alfred's singing. Frank arrives, still giddy with champagne, followed shortly by Ida and Adele, who, thinking him a potential financial benefactor, believes Frank might further her stage aspirations. Frank, hearing someone at the door, hides the girls in a cell and then admits Eisenstein, who has come to begin his sentence. The new prisoner is surprised to learn his cell is already occupied by a man who claims to be Eisenstein and who was found dining with Rosalinde! When Dr. Blind arrives as the impostor’s lawyer, Eisenstein snatches a robe and wig from the befuddled attorney to get to the bottom of the situation. No sooner is he disguised than Rosalinde hurries in to secure Alfred's release and press divorce charges against her errant husband. With her would-be paramour, she confides her flirtation to the "lawyer." Enraged, Eisenstein removes his disguise and accuses his wife of promiscuity, at which Rosalinde whips forth the watch she took from him at the ball. Orlofsky and his guests burst in to witness the final act of Falke’s grand prank on Eisenstein, and even the dour Prince manages a chuckle as Rosalinde and Eisenstein forgive each other.
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