Belleayre Music - Donald Westwood, director of the Belleayre Festival Opera, puts his unique stamp on Die Fledermaus (The Bat) one of the greatest comic operettas of all time. Sung in English with music composed by Johann Strauss II and a libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée this piece is often used by many opera companies, including the Met, to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

In a fashionable watering-place, described as "near a big city," lives Gabriel von Eisenstein, a wealthy man of independent means, with his attractive wife Rosalinda, and their maid, Adele.
The light-hearted story of Die Fledermaus tells of the revenge taken by a certain Dr. Falke on this Gabriel von Eisenstein for playing a practical joke on him.

The Belleayre Festival Opera will be joined once again by the Community Chorale of the Catskills and a small chamber orchestra in creating a cast of over 60 to present this joyous event