Die Fledermaus

Staff

... Conductor

Eugene Ormandy

Cast

... Adele	Lily Pons
... Rosalinde	Ljuba Welitsch
... Prince Orlofsky	Martha Lipton
... Latin Dancer	Martha Lipton Richard Tucker
... Alfred	Richard Tucker
... Eisenstein	Charles Kullman
... Dr. Falke	John Brownlee
... Frank	Clifford Harvuot
... Dr. Blind	Paul Franke

Patrice Munsel (as Adele) and Risë Stevens (as Prince Orlofsky) were in the cast of the Metropolitan Opera premiere of the Howard Dietz-Garson Kanin adaptation on Dec 20. 1950, but they do not appear on this recording. Lily Pons and Martha Lipton, who sang never sang those roles (or any role) in the Met production, sing Adele and Orlofsky on this recording. Recorded December 24 and 29. 1950, and January 7, 1951 this recording has the opening-night conductor and some principals from the original cast. Another change from the opening-night cast is Charles Kullman as Eisenstein, in place of Set Svanholm. Kullman, however, sang the role regularly in the production, starting at the third performance.

Three principals of the opening-night cast of this production (Munsel, Stevens, and Hugh Thompson) had recorded excerpts in English of Die Fledermaus for RCA, using the Ruth and Thomas Martin translation. (Also on that recording, singing Rosalinda, was Regina Resnik, who sang Rosalinda in the Met production later that season. She would eventually also sing Prince Orlofsky in the production.) The RCA recording sessions preceded the opening night of the Met production by three months. The RCA recording was conducted by Fritz Reiner, who was originally scheduled to conduct the Met production, but who resigned some time before opening night after he found himself in serious disagreement with director-adapter Garson Kanin's plans for the production.