I went as a doubter and left as a believer. I hope that the Austin-centric production of Die Fledermaus or The Bat is revived. By all appearances, every performance was sold out, and for good reason.

The music is delightful; the costumes were witty and so were the lyrics in English from the fine people of Esther’s Follies; the singers were in fine form and were wonderful comic actors as well. Each performance had cameo appearances: ours included one B. McCracken (who was roundly booed), B. Dunkerley, Moser the Style Avatar, the Biscuit Brothers, and Wammo (Asylum Street Spankers) doing his Batman riff.

The Long Center acoustics, experienced for the second time, were still disconcerting. Some of the percussion was heard as though coming from the back of the hall and not at all from the orchestra pit. It was easy to tell which female members of the audience had been to the Long Center before: they were the ones wearing flat shoes and not heels. The view toward downtown, changing almost daily, remains spectacular in all lights.

The audience did laugh and would laugh to see it again, I’d bet. Photos of many of the production’s costumes for Austin landmarks and people (Peter Pan, the tower, the capitol, Hyde Park french fries, Lance Armstrong, Willie Nelson, and more) may be seen at the opera’s site. And we all sounded loud, in tune, and rousing as we joined the Biscuit Brothers in singing You Are My Sunshine.