Prison or a ball full of beautiful women? The choice is easy, but his wife must not find out about it. Gabriel von Eisenstein is meant to be going to serve a week in prison for contempt of court. At home, he pretends to be going to serve his sentence, but instead he goes incognito to enjoy himself at a party hosted by the exotic Prince Orlofsky. His wife Rosalinde takes advantage of her husband’s absence and invites her former lover Alfred, but their rendezvous is interrupted by the guard who has come to take her husband away to prison.

Johann Strauss II is celebrating the anniversary of his 200^th birthday, so we have decided to give him and you a gift in the form of a new production of his famous operetta Die Fledermaus. Since its premiere, this witty story about mistaken identity and the fact that innocent flirting need not pay off has enjoyed great success at leading theatres around the world, and not just theatres specialising in operetta. Die Fledermaus has long since become part of the repertoire of theatres such as the Metropolitan Opera and the Vienna State Opera. Today, no one suspects that it all began with the unsuccessful acquisition of the French play Le Réveillon by Meilhac and Halévy. After reading it, the director of Theater an der Wien Max Stein decided that he did not dare present it as a drama, but would rather have it reworked into an operetta libretto and offer it to Johann Strauss. Strauss was thrilled with Richard Genée’s version and had the composition ready within four months. A comedy filled with Strauss’s sparkling melodies came into being in short time and Die Fledermaus, now rightly considered a jewel of classic Viennese operetta, was born.

Premiere on 12 June 2026 at the Janáček Theatre

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