Imprisoned with tails and top hat — words from the opera on mindset
(On the Viennese New Year’s Eve of 1899, Gabriel von Eisenstein is preparing to serve an eight-day sentence, for striking a police officer.)
Gabriel von Eisenstein: My friend Falke is right. I’ll go to prison in tails and a top hat, in protest. They may lock me up but they will never humiliate me!
Die Fledermaus (The Bat), 1874
Operetta in three acts
by Johann Strauß II (1825-1899)
Libretto: Karl Haffner and Richard Genée