Die Fledermaus / Ariadne auf Naxos, Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon

Fledermaus takes flight

Is it possible to do Strauss's Die Fledermaus straight? No, judging by what we see in our opera houses. At Welsh National Opera, it got thoroughly Calixto-Bieito-ed; at Covent Garden it became Joan Sutherland's glittery farewell vehicle; for ENO, Richard Jones pantomimed it to death. Nobody trusts the piece to stand on its own, and maybe they're right, but somewhere in Die Fledermaus there's a modern sexual comedy bursting to get out.

At times, Bill Bankes-Jones's new English Touring Opera (ETO) production locates it. As the layers of deception and disguise accumulate at Orlofsky's ball, the characters mime the slow turning of a merry-go-round, as if preparing for a spot of aristocratic partner-swapping. But the frisson passes, returning only intermittently.

ETO's low-budget productions have to travel, and fast. The resulting economy of means is a solid virtue: this Fledermaus generates credible bustle with a cast, including chorus, of only 13, and Tim Meacock's simple set transforms itself instantly from act to act (although ETO inserts two intervals where one would do).

Sadly, Bankes-Jones has his cast deliver everything facing the audience and makes the funny voices work overtime. Nor is having the characters stand on furniture as amusing as he would have us believe. Given that Jailer Frosch's final-act monologue is always an opportunity for stand-up, David Gooderson's homage to Professor Stanley Unwin's lingua obscura is clever, but too often the production (in Bankes-Jones's translation) substitutes slapstick and silly for suave and sexy.

On the tour's opening night, some of the vocal performances make the same mistake, but Charlotte Kinder's Adele displays guts and spritz in equal measure, while Declan Kelly's Alfred has something of the genuine light tenor about him, despite the carry-ons to which he is subjected. Although the ETO orchestra is always a slimmed-down affair, that matters less in operetta than in grand opera, and the conductor, Tecwyn Evans, finds the right swinging lilt for all those waltzes.

Its touring companion is Ariadne auf Naxos by that other Strauss, Richard. Seen last October in Aldeburgh, Colin Graham's production shares many of ETO's core values: minimum fuss, uncluttered narrative line, clarity of purpose. Unfortunately the comedy fails to rise above the level of the village hall, and in Croydon the singers got too little of Tom Hammond's translation across. In an opera that flirts with inconsequentiality, that is risky. But there were performances to catch the ear. Eva Kallberg's sparky Zerbinetta didn't have all the notes, but who does? And among the simpering Dryads, Rebecca Gale clearly has something more substantial within her grasp. As in Fledermaus, though, it was the orchestra that was most convincing: 27 players as against the 36 prescribed by Strauss, but handled with a tactful lack of exaggeration by Richard Farnes.

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