JOHANN STRAUSS: DIE FLEDERMAUS

Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, the Waltz King’s main work, is still abreast of the time today. Or to put it better: it is once more. The situation in 1874, when the operetta was premiered was considerably more dramatic than the current crisis: the collapse and the closure by the police of the Vienna stock exchange on 9 May 1873 with more than a hundred bankruptcies in a single day. Millionaires suddenly became beggars. So, even at that time there were good reasons for saying ‘Glücklich ist, wer vergisst, was doch nicht zu ändern ist’ (‘Fortunate is he who can forget what cannot be changed’), which flutters like a flag over Die Fledermaus:  examples of positive thinking in times of crisis.