The premiere of the operetta “Die Fledermaus“ is scheduled for November

Published: November 7, 2025

In the year in which the world celebrates the bicentennial of the birth of Johann Strauss the Younger, the SNT Opera is organizing the premiere of the famous operetta „Die Fledermaus“.

Rehearsals for the premiere of the operetta are well underway. The author’s team consists of: director Aleksandar Nikolić, conductor Željka Milanović, set designer Miljena Vučković, costume designer Magdalena Klašnja, choreographer Andreja Kulešević, while the SNT Choir was prepared by Vesna Kesić Krsmanović. The operetta premiered in Vienna in 1874 and is considered a masterpiece of the golden age of Viennese operetta – a sumptuous blend of waltz, satire and masked ball. In the key part of the operetta, which takes place at a ball at Prince Orlovsky’s, the protagonists appear under masks, creating a plot that is ultimately resolved in a humorous finale.

Director Aleksandar Nikolić points out: “We are in Vienna. New Year’s Eve 1914. Act one – a petit bourgeois home: soup, sauce, rinfleisch, wallpaper, bergères, milieu, ticking clocks. A pleasant family atmosphere. However, in this wonderful family environment, some things do not work. The husband, a respectable citizen, has to go to prison. On the other hand, a lover sings to his wife under the window. The maid harasses the lady. The lady harasses the maid. The maid tries to steal the lady’s dress and go to the ball. The hungry lover tries to enter through the window to have dinner. In Vienna 1914, no one is satisfied with their position. Everyone wants to escape. On the one hand, they want to maintain the petit bourgeois comfort of soup, sauce and rinfleisch and yesterday’s pig’s head, but they also want to experience something more. It is possible to get comfort soup, sauce and rinfleisch and pork head from yesterday, but it is impossible to get any other pleasures. The second act takes us to the palace of the Orlovsky villa and there we watch how barriers, prejudices and various assumptions are slowly crowned. That is perhaps the most important message of the play – let us look into each other’s eyes, forget our prejudices, try something new, take a step forward in our lives, forget the old quarrel, forget the old model of behavior, try to look at everything from the beginning. That is one of the most important themes of the play, but also revenge. What is the tragedy of revenge and is revenge, which is perhaps the curiosity of our “Bat”, even when it is realized, and in its fullest form, in front of everyone, actually barren and of no use to anyone.”

The premiere is scheduled for November 20th on the „Jovan Đorđević“ stage at 7:00 PM, and the first rerun awaits you on November 22nd. Soloists, the Choir and Orchestra of the Opera and Ballet of the SNT will participate.