Johann Strauss and ballet

Johann Straussʼ music, initially composed for the ballroom and soon also for concert halls and theaters, seems to have been made for the ballet stage, as the waltz in ¾ time in particular contains much of what constitutes dance: verve and passion, but also delicacy. The whirling torque has something virtuosic about it. Choreographers have repeatedly made use of Strauss' masterful compositions, but not only his waltzes. On the international stage, choreographerssuch as George Balanchine(The Bat, 1936), Ruth Page(Die Fledermaus, 1961) and Ronald Hynd(Rosalinda, 1978) took up the Fledermaus theme alone.

The following works to music by Johann Strauss have been performed at the Vienna State Opera to date: Heinrich Kröller's G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald (1926), Toni Birkmeyer's Kaiserwalzer (1932), Valeria Kratina's Johann Strauss-Tänze (1933), Erika Hanka's Titus Feuerfuchs (1942), Gerlinde Dill's Wiener

Skizzen (1983) or Grete Wiesenthal's Wiesenthal Tänze II (1984).

More recently, Renato Zanella created Alles Walzer (1997) as a "best of" numerous Strauss melodies, the full-length ballet Aschenbrödel (1999) - the last unfinished work by Johann Strauss son and also his only ballet - and Kadettenball (2003).

in 2006, Harangozó sen. In 2009, Roland Petit's Die Fledermaus celebrated its premiere, which is now being revived. With Marsch, Walzer, Polka 2021, Martin Schläpfer presented a thoroughly ironic take on Strauss's waltzing bliss.

The highly acclaimed world premiere Strauss 2225: Dances for the Future by Canadian choreographer Robert Binet in cooperation with Johann Strauss 2025 Vienna recently took a look into the future at NEST. The dancers from the youth company of the Vienna State Opera Ballet Academy performed a touching interpretation of four contemporary compositions based on and inspired by Strauss' music, raising questions such as: "How will we live ... How will we dance ... How will we make music ... in 200 years?"

Finally, a small preview at this point: As part of the Ballet Gala 2026, Frederick Ashton's Voices of Spring, a pas de deux to Johann Strauss Sohn's Frühlingsstimmen-Walzer op. 410, will be performed for the first time with the Vienna State Ballet.

After 14 years, Roland Petit's popular ballet Die Fledermaus, which premiered at the Vienna State Opera in 2009 and was last performed in 2011, is returning to the stage. However, this ballet has little in common with the well-known operetta of the same name, which premiered at the Theater an der Wien in 1874, and is in fact an adaptation of it.

In Petit's work, described as an "operette dansée", which premiered under the title La Chauve-souris on June 2, 1979 with the Ballets de Marseille at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the plot is essentially reduced to three main characters: Bella, Johann and Ulrich. As in the operetta, however, everything here revolves around masquerade, mistaken identities and amorous adventures.

The initial family idyll with five adorable children sitting - more or less well-behaved - around the large dining table is deceptive. In Petit's case, it is the charming Bella, who wants to be desired again by her husband Johann by means of roller games and transformations - after all, he seeks extramarital pleasure by turning into a bat at night and flying away.

Supported by her faithful and cunning friend Ulrich, who always seems to be in the right place at the right time and weaves the threads to save the marriage that has lost its erotic balance, Bella finally succeeds in bringing her husband back to his senses and literally clipping his wings.

The French choreographer Roland Petit (1924-2011) was extremely versatile and achieved world fame primarily in the genre of light ballet, but also as a great storyteller of real-life situations and emotions. His work ranges from choreographies for Hollywood films such as Anything Goes (1955) to ballets for major classical companies, including those of the Paris Opera, La Scala in Milan and the Royal Ballet London - but above all for the Ballets de Marseille, of which he became director in 1972.

Leading companies worldwide subsequently took on ballets from his oeuvre of around 165 works. In addition to Die Fledermaus, his one-act LʼArlésienne (2012) has also been performed at the Vienna State Opera, as well as Le Jeune homme et la mort and excerpts from Carmen, Notre-Dame de Paris and Proust ou les intermittences du cœur at galas.

Petit's basis is classical ballet technique, but always with a contemporary touch and the typical French esprit, enriched with elements of different dance styles, whereby acting plays an important role. Thus Die Fledermaus also offers pure classical dance, paired with can-can, csárdás, waltzes and punchy pantomime.

The rousing music to Die Fledermaus is like a "best of" by Johann Strauss and is an arrangement by the Australian composer Douglas Gamley (1924-1998). In addition to mainly music by Johann Strauss son - such as the overture and the polka Mazur Glücklich ist, wer vergisst from the operetta Die Fledermaus - Gamley drew on other compositions by the Waltz King, including the waltz Künstlerleben and the fast polka Leichtes Blut, to which three waiters dance a virtuoso number.

Additional music by Johann Strauss's father and brother Josef Strauss - such as the waltz Sphärenklänge in the "Prison Scene" - also found its way into the score.

True professionals are at work on the production. The former Italian dancer Luigi Bonino already played the role of Ulrich in the 1979 premiere, worked as Roland Petit's assistant until his death in 2011 and has been responsible for rehearsing all of his works ever since. Now, as in 2009, he primarily rehearses the solo roles, but keeps an eye on the entire ballet.

He is actively supported by the director of the Vienna State Ballet, Alessandra Ferri, who once enjoyed success as Bella - alongside Bonino, among others. The company is working with three different casts, including numerous debuts, with the exception of Olga Esina and Eno Peci, who already danced in the Vienna premiere in 2009.

British-born Gillian Whittingham, who was also first ballet mistress at La Scala in Milan, is rehearsing the corps de ballet - as she has done for many of Petit's other works.

Luciano Di Martino, who already successfully conducted the Giselle series in September this year, will make his debut with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Die Fledermaus is a great dance festival for young and old, but by no means just a sweet, sweet ballet in a waltzing frenzy, but spiced up with a good dose of irony and a wink.