But we at SFist can go where they can't, with their layers of editors and fear of sanctimonious letter writers: die Fledermaus means "the bat," a somewhat nonsensical title, but then again, the whole story does not make much sense anyway. But the cast at Saturday's performance at the War Memorial opera house just went bats**t crazy swung that bat like they were on 'roids. Hey, it's an all sails out fun piece, it's not subtle, so why should we be? And by crazy, we mean: jumping up and down, and running around, and tripping themselves up, and leaving no slapstick stone unturned. They did all they could to make us forget that they really were legitimate opera singers, you know, the supposedly staid kind who move like a brick and one would expect to sing like we shoot hoops: with their feet solidly on the ground.

Pictures by SF Opera/Terrence McCarthy. Above, Gerald Thompson went full throttle, so that we were sure he would toss that vodka glass over his shoulder. Below, from left to right, Melody Moore as Ida, Christine Goerke, Wolfgang Brendel, Brian Leerhuber as Falk, Eugene Brancoveanu, Jennifer Welch-Babidge