It's completely 'batty'!

James Levine returns to conduct a new production of Johann Strauss' beloved romantic farce, with themes that would not be out of place in a tragedy, but played with graceful parody to great effect. The action centres around a magnificent Viennese masked ball, where one man orchestrates many a misunderstanding between lovers and married couples, in order to get revenge on a prank played on him many years ago. Will his plan succeed in ruining the relationships of those around him? Or will it all be treated as one almighty prank?

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Set at fin de siecle Vienna, the main players in this romantic farce include a wealthy bourgeois couple with marriage problems, the woman's personal maid, the maid's ambitious and snobbish showbiz sister, and a non-too bright prison warden called Frank.

The wealthy wife is rueing her life in a dull marriage when she is courted by an old flame Alfred, asking her to attend a fabulous masked ball with him. Her maid also wishes to attend, but Rosalinde flatly refuses her permission to go and "visit her sick aunt". To add to her woes, her husband, Herr Edelstein is due to surrender to prison that very night, for a crime he committed some months ago. His best friend Falke encourages him to go to the ball for one last hurrah - but also asks Rosalind to go in disguise, so she would catch her husband seducing other women.

Angry that her husband is in fact planning to attend the masque,she sends Ida away, and received the passionate Alfred, only for the prison warden to arrive, and cart him off instead!

What follows is a heady journey into farce, with a pocketwatch, a depressed prince and plenty of diguises. All the while, Falke laments his nickname, "The Bat", and carries on the cruel trick. Things come to a head when Edelstein surrenders himself to prison, only to find Alfred sitting in his cell claiming to be him. How will Rosalind explain this one?!