The George Balanchine Foundation
Balanchine Catalogue
Balanchine Catalogue Archive

Search by title, year, composer, cast or production details.

107f. Dances for Sir Oswald Stoll’s Variety Shows (DIE FLEDERMAUS) 1931
George Balanchine
Produced by Sir Oswald Stoll
May 18, 1931, Varieties en Fête, Alhambra
Bat, Sonne; Pas de Deux: Jackson, Briggs; corps de ballet
Performance Type
Concert Works
See Also
Made for Television
Johann Strauss the Younger (excerpts from Die Fledermaus, produced 1874)
George Balanchine
Countess, Melissa Hayden; Maid, Janet Reed; André Eglevsky
Performance Type
Television
See Also
Recorded Performances
Television

February 3, 1953, Kate Smith Hour, NBC

Source Notes

Information provided by Virginia Brooks, Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; corroborated by Melissa Hayden.

Johann Strauss the Younger (from Die Fledermaus, produced 1874, with unidentified additions). Book by Lincoln Kirstein
George Balanchine
Costumes and lighting by Keith Martin
June 30, 1941, American Ballet Caravan, Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro. Conductor: Emanuel Balaban
The Bat, Helen Kramer, Todd Bolender; The Poet, Lew Christensen; The Masked (Identical) Ladies, Gisella Caccialanza, Olga Suárez; Hungarian Dancers (formerly called Gypsies), Marie-Jeanne, William Dollar; The Can-Can Dancer, Beatrice Tompkins; The Ladies of Fashion, 4 women; 2 Coachmen; Can-Can Dancers, Officers, Ladies and Gentlemen, corps de ballet
Performance Type
Ballet
See Also
Note
Originally presented by the American Ballet, New York, 1936.
(also called EL MURCIÉLAGO) Character Ballet, from ‘Die Fledermaus’
Johann Strauss the Younger (from Die Fledermaus, produced 1874, with unidentified additions). Book by Lincoln Kirstein
George Balanchine
Costumes and lighting by Keith Martin
May 20, 1936, American Ballet Ensemble, Metropolitan Opera, New York. Conductor: Wilfred Pelletier
The Bat, Holly Howard, Lew Christensen; The Poet, Charles Laskey; The Masked (Identical) Ladies, Leda Anchutina, Annabelle Lyon; The Gypsies (later called Hungarian Dancers), Helen Leitch, William Dollar; The Can-Can Dancer, Rabana Hasburgh; The Ladies of Fashion, 4 women; 2 Coachmen, Can-Can Dancers, Officers, Ladies and Gentlemen, corps de ballet
Performance Type
Ballet
See Also
Note
Balanchine conceived The Bat as a couple, a man and a woman, each wearing a huge spangled wing. The ballet is an evocation of Vienna, set in a park; a young poet seeking inspiration is confounded by two beautiful but identical ladies; a band of Gypsies invades the scene. At the end the park is empty, except for the shadow of The Bat.
The Bat was the first independent ballet choreographed by Balanchine at the Metropolitan while the American Ballet Ensemble was in residence. It was performed about a dozen times over the next two seasons.
Additional Productions
Stagings

1941  American Ballet Caravan