Racy Strauss booed in Salzburg

The audience - in evening dress - were "incensed"

Boos and bad notices have greeted a Salzburg Festival production of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus (The Bat).

The operetta is normally highly popular in Austria. The Austrian composer is best known for his swirling waltz music and wrote his most famous work, The Blue Danube, in 1867.

But German director Hans Neuenfels' attempt to transfer the plot from the 1870s into a 20th Century setting, aimed to break political and social taboos.

The current production addresses topics such as drug addiction and homosexuality.

Salzburg was home to Mozart

The plot of Die Fledermaus centres on Orlofsky - a rich but bored nobleman. He is portrayed in by Neuenfels as a cocaine addict.

This prompted the mass-circulation Kronenzeitung to title its review Gone Down in Wild Coke Orgies.

The Austria Press Agency was similarly caustic about the portrayal of Orlofsky, who - it said - only shows "what excessive consumption of drugs leads to".

It went on: "Clad in a pajama, he stumbles from one fit into another and croaks more than he sings."

Neuenfels was also criticised for other changes to the plot and libretto.

"Plot and punch lines of the operetta are destroyed, they are getting lost in an overabundance of on-the-scene gimmicks," the review continued.

The question arises as to what damage is done to the Salzburg Festival by such productions

Helene Partik-Pable

While Strauss's original Die Fledermaus refers to flirtation on stage, this version included references to fornication.

The political implications of the work were also criticised - the production is set in Hitler's Third Reich.

The involvement of the right-wing in government has been cause for alarm throughout Europe.

Helene Partik-Pable - a prominent political ally of populist Joerg Haider, formerly chairman of the ruling far-right Freedom Party - felt the production belittled the city.

"Once again the question arises as to what damage is done to the Salzburg Festival by such productions that completely antagonize and mislead the audience and how much (Salzburg's) reputation as a serious festival city is put at risk," she said.

But not every voice was critical.

Gerard Mortier, the Belgian impresario who is leaving Salzburg as the festival's artistic manager, said he was "happy" about the reaction, as the role of theatre was to be "rousing, provocative and challenging".