Last night was the final installment in Boston Lyric's "Season of Bonbons", and this was the bonbonniest of them all, Strauss' "Die Fledermaus". I have to admit the sets looked kind of spartan, and I swear I'd seen the giant fence in back of the prison set in some other opera, most of the rest seemed to have been done for a total budget of $100 or so. But the singers were mostly pretty good, and while there wasn't enough collective experience with hijinks or comedic timing to make it completely engaging, there were plenty of humorous moments, much more so than in "Abduction from the Seraglio" earlier in the season. I particularly liked the opera singer coming on stage after pilfering Eisenstein's closet for a dressing gown, singing "Nessun Dorma" (which wasn't written yet, of course, which makes it even more amusing). He probably had the most to work with, and most of the gags about opera singers that are played off of him were funnier as a result. Adele had a smallish voice, and even Rosalinde faded into the background in some of the fuller orchestral sections, so even though this was done in English, the titles were a must, which is too bad. I wasn't particularly enamored of the woman that played Orlovsky, or the guy who was the prison warden. The actor playing Frosch was funny enough, but in kind of a subtle, understated way. After reading about how Dom Deluise did it at the Met I would like to see somebody a little campier like him for comparison.



Next year offers another ultra-conservative season of three Italian operas that it's hard to generate much enthusiasm for. The only reason to celebrate is that they decided not to do L'Italiani in Algieri, which I don't ever have to see again. Meanwhile, the recently renamed company formerly known as Boston Academy of Music is doing Nixon in China and Luisa Miller next year, and Candide instead of a G&S around Thanksgiving, which sounds much more appealing to me. Maybe I'll just go to the Symphony more instead.