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| | [Strauss, J II - Overture: Die Fledermaus] notes by Paul Serotsky (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07) |
 | | An operetta is literally a “little opera”, originally a play with overture, songs and dances, but which has evolved into something indistinguishable from opera except for being set to “light music”. |
 | | Die Fledermaus (1847) is his best known, and unquestionably best loved, operetta, the third of a series of stage works that he embarked upon at the prompting of Offenbach, no less. |
 | | It does, though, make considerable demands on the performers, who must be alive to its many and extreme changes of pace: not generally a feature of his waltzes and polkas, these are the key to much of the hair-raising excitement of this incredibly entertaining music. |
| www.musicweb-international.com /Programme_Notes/jstrauss_diefledov.htm (283 words) |
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