Strauss - Die Fledermaus

Richard Bonynge conducts the Royal Opera House Orchestra and Chorus in this performance of Johann Strauss's opera at Dame Joan Sutherland's farewell gala, recorded at London's Covent Garden in December 1990. Rosalinde (Nancy Gustafson), wife of Gabriel von Eisenstein (Louis Otey), is having an affair with Alfredo (Bonaventura Bottone). Eisenstein is due to begin a prison sentence the next morning and the prison governor, Colonel Frank (Eric Garrett), is expected to collect him at any moment. However, Eisenstein allows himself to be talked into attending a fancy dress ball and when Frank arrives to find Alfred with Rosalinde, he assumes him to be Eisenstein and carts him off to prison. Sutherland makes a special appearance in Act II alongside Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne.