(upbeat music) - Lyrical Opera Theater is presenting "Die Fledermaus" by Johann Strauss.

It's a timeless tale of mistaken identities and champagne-fueled escapades.

And here to tell us more is Lynnette Owens.

Hi Lynnette.

- Thanks for being back.

- Sure.

- I like champagne-filled escapades.

(both laughing) - Me too.

- So tell us what it's about.

- "Die Fledermaus" is a lighthearted comedic opera set in Vienna, Austria in 1874.

And it's translated as "The Bat."

Some people translate it as "The Revenge of the Bat," because what precedes the opera is one of the characters named Dr. Falke, he woke up one fine morning in the middle of a town square from a drunken champagne-filled evening the night before, dressed as a bat with the town square people laughing at him.

And this whole prank was set up by one of the characters in the opera, Gabriel von Eisenstein.

And Dr. Falke has decided that it's time to get revenge on Eisenstein.

So he orchestrates this whole operetta, setting up an elaborate masquerade ball, with people in disguises, dressed, pretending to be somebody else, which creates a lot of mischief and comedy.

- Okay, so it's, I mean, it's a lot of fun, it sounds like.

- It is fun, absolutely.

- Yeah, yeah.

And tell us about your singers who are performing in this.

- We have several, we have many singers.

They're all local artists.

It's a very fine cast.

We have, filling the character of Gabriel von Eisenstein is Christopher Stockslager and David Sauer.

And in fact, we are doing this opera in English.

And our English translation was created by Anthony Buck.

And he did a modern version of it that our audiences will really enjoy.

- Oh yeah, it's a very popular one.

And thank you for being here to tell us about it.

- Thank you, Mary.

- And if you'd like to know more about the upcoming production by Lyrical Opera Theater of "Die Fledermaus," it opens February 8th at Lyric Opera Theater.

You can go online to lyricaloperatheater.com.

That's lyricaloperatheater.com.

(upbeat music) I'm Mary Dickson.

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