The “waltz king” Johann Strauss Jr. was 45 years old before he tried his hand at writing an operetta, urged on by the management of Vienna’s Theater an der Wien, who wanted to replace the extremely popular French operettas of Jacques Offenbach with some by Vienna’s own famous purveyor of light music.

Even so, for the libretto of Strauss’s third operetta, the cagey theater managers hedged their bets by acquiring the rights to a spicy French farce which just happened to be written by the librettists of Offenbach’s biggest hits.

The original French farce was considered a little too racy as it stood, so some substantial changes were made before Strauss set to work. The end result, re-titled Die Fledermaus (or The Bat) opened in Vienna on today’s date in 1874.

Now, there is an oft-repeated myth that Fledermaus was initially a flop and that it closed after only sixteen performances. But blame that on the famous American soprano, Adelina Patti, who had booked the Theater an der Wien for a run of Italian opera performances right after Fledermaus was opened.

When Patti left Vienna, Fledermaus returned for more performances, and has rarely been absent from Viennese stages from that day to this.

Johann Strauss II (1825 – 1899) Die Fledermaus Overture Vienna Symphony; Robert Stolz, cond. BMG 72916