This exciting, fun-filled Fledermaus always has had one fatal flaw, which I will get to in a moment. On the plus side are Carlos Kleiber’s joyous-but-never-too-broad leadership, Lucia Popp’s amazingly alluring Adele, Julia Varady’s sumptuous but fun-loving Rosalinde, René Kollo’s terrific, ironic Alfred (possibly his best performance on CD), and all the lower men’s voices. The thorn in this set’s side is the disgraceful casting of bass Ivan Rebroff as Orlovsky. He sings in a falsetto that is both ugly and annoying. It’s not just campy, it’s grotesque, and he wrecks the second act. Otherwise, this is a pearl of a show.
