“Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
November 21, 2025
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf
For Johann Strauss II’s bicentennial, the Vienna State Ballet revived Roland Petit’s 1979 ballet adaptation of Strauss’s famous operetta, Die Fledermaus (The Bat). It’s accompanied by a “best of” selection of compositions by Johann Strauss II, his father, Johann Strauss I, and his brother, Josef. The score’s oomph and gaiety are infectious. Strauss’ music, particularly the Viennese waltzes (of which Die Fledermaus has plenty), is part of the DNA of the Vienna State Opera’s orchestra, and under Luciano Di Martino’s baton, it fizzed like champagne. Melodies rose boisterously to a tipping point, balanced provocatively on the edge, and rippled down with relish as if on a rollercoaster ride.
Except for the core theme (male infidelity and female maneuvers to deal with it), Petit’s version has little in common with the operetta. He employs only three protagonists: Bella (Olga Esina), her husband (Timoor Afshar), who is named Johann (maybe an ironic jab at Strauss II, whose second wife, Angelika, cuckolded him?), and the family’s friend, Ulrich (Davide Dato). In Ulrich, Petit combined two characters of the operetta, the schemer, Dr. Falke, and the seducer, Alfred.
While the operetta’s Dr. Falke was ridiculed for wearing a bat costume, the ballet’s Johann transformed into a bat at night, flying from his conjugal bed to seek pleasure at other establishments. Bella no longer excited his senses, and their austere, Mondrian-style home (designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte) presumably didn’t either.
One night, she found out that Johann was leading a double life and called Ulrich. He rushed in as if he were waiting for the moment, covered Bella’s arm with an armada of kisses (in contradiction to his purported, noble altruism to save her marriage), and took action. Under his supervision, Bella metamorphosed into an Odile-like diva who ensnared her prince, Johann, at Maxim’s in Paris. (Bella and Johann live in an Austrian-Hungarian capital, so how they managed to get to Paris in no time was a mystery.)
Dressed as a waiter, Ulrich coached Bella’s performance as if he were Rothbart. She enraptured Johann, who failed to recognize his wife. When Bella and Ulrich escaped by carriage in the purple morning light, Johann jumped on as a stowaway. He stood on top in a bold arabesque like a hood ornament while the horse galloped off—a smashing exit!
Bella then moved on to a seductive gig at a masquerade ball reminiscent of the hunting scene in The Sleeping Beauty. In contrast to Prince Désiré, who followed his spiritual calling to search for Aurora, Johann was driven by sexual appetite. The parody intensified when Bella turned up. Wearing a scant, red tutu and a black neck ribbon (costumes by Luisa Spinatelli), she resembled a hybrid of Kitri and Carmen and danced like a frivolous Paquita. The Hungarian Csárdás that was part of the ball also turned farcical when Ulrich joined, his cheeks clownishly red.
Night fell as Johann, fueled by spiking hormones, tried to conquer Bella (he made me think of an unstoppable steam engine). Inevitably, Johann turned into a bat and fluttered above the guests. But Bella lured him to a lower altitude, and the trap snapped shut. Policemen arrested Johann. Behind bars, he lip-synced tenor Lukas Schmidt who didn’t sing about Bella, but the lovely Rosalinde, begging her to quench his desire (Rosalinde is the operetta’s heroine, and Alfred sings the song). Indeed, the beloved Bella appeared, effected his release, and, dropping her mask and clothes (except for a skin-colored, full-body leotard), rekindled their marital love.
The couple’s intimate pas de deux was the only scene that Petit didn’t turn into a comedy. But not for long. The moment Johann succumbed to Bella’s allure, Ulrich (this time dressed up as a prison guard) handed her huge scissors, and gone went the bat wings. As if stripped of his balls, Johann instantly transmuted into a henpecked husband, whose feet Bella tucked into felt slippers. She had realized her initial dream. Men orbited her; she called the shots, and life was as spiffy as a waltz.
Esina’s Bella cleverly hid her hurt from Johann’s disinterest under a shiny surface. It was unclear if her masquerade was motivated by true love or to secure her well-off status. Compared to Bella, Afshar’s Johann was an open book. His turns were hasty when he was impatient to break free, pretentious when he was eager to stand out, and spicy when he burned with lust. Women other than his wife lent wings to his showmanship.
Dato’s feet moved with such lightning speed and precision that I thought of hot needlework. A string puller, his Ulrich always turned up at the right moment. He puffed himself up like a toreador at Maxim’s, played the goof at the ball, and in prison he acted like a companion in crime.
Céline Janou Weder played Bella and Johann’s sometimes zealous, sometimes drowsy maidservant, Eno Peci was the police commissioner who arrested Johann. As servants at Maxim’s, Gaspare Li Mandri, Kristián Pokorný, and Géraud Wielick buzzed around, their spins, split jumps, and bobbing bottoms adding heat to the already hot atmosphere. The three can-can ladies (Francesca Cesaro, Sveva Gargiulo, and Chiara Uderzo) achieved the same by lifting their skirts extra high. Like a remnant of the good old times of ballet, Alessandro Cavallo continued to lead the Csárdás with composure, regardless of Ulrich’s interference. He only gave him a raised eyebrow.
The corps’ waltzes had pep, but their routine at the ball (including hands flapping up and down and heads turning left and right) looked silly.
| Links: | Website of the Vienna State Ballet | |
| “Die Fledermaus” – Trailer | ||
| Photos: | 1. | Timoor Afshar (Johann) and Olga Esina (Bella), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
| 2. | Timoor Afshar (Johann) and Olga Esina (Bella), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 3. | Olga Esina (Bella), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 4. | Olga Esina (Bella) and Davide Dato (Ulrich), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 5. | Ensemble, “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 6. | Géraud Wielick (Servant), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 7. | Timoor Afshar (Johann), Olga Esina (Bella), Victor Cagnin, and ensemble; “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 8. | Kristián Pokorný, Géraud Wielick, and Gaspare Li Mandri (Servants), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 9. | Gaia Fredianelli, Alessandro Cavallo, and Natalya Butchko; “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 10. | Francesca Cesaro and Duccio Tariello, “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 11. | Davide Dato (Ulrich), Olga Esina (Bella), Alessandro Cavallo, and ensemble; “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 12. | Timoor Afshar (Johann) and ensemble, “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 13. | Olga Esina (Bella) and Timoor Afshar (Johann), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 14. | Davide Dato (Ulrich) and ensemble, “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 15. | Timoor Afshar (Johann) and Olga Esina (Bella), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 16. | Davide Dato (Ulrich), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| 17. | Davide Dato (Ulrich) and Céline Janou Weder (Servant), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 | |
| 18. | Timoor Afshar (Johann) and Olga Esina (Bella), “Die Fledermaus” by Roland Petit, Vienna State Ballet 2025 |
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| all photos © Vienna State Ballet/Ashley Taylor | ||
| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |