Any opera-loving stamp collector will find the following stamps and cancellations based on these four operas interesting additions to your collection and exhibit.
 

 Dracula – The Musical and Ballet has been preformed worldwide

Carl Jung, Swiss analytical psychiatrist, said, "Our task is not to create more images of light, but rather, to release the light that is trapped within the darkness." The story of Dracula, written by Bram Stoker, is uniquely relevant within Jung’s context, as an exploration of darkness to reinforce and reassure us of our own normalcy.  The brutality and grotesqueness of the legendary bloodthirsty demon, paired with the airy grace of the operatic ballet and its potential for emotional exploration, is an exhilarating combination.

The opera begins with the story projected on a screen above Lucy, the heroine who stands silent and unmoving in a pale gold dress as fog slithers around her. Then, right off the bat (no pun intended), Dracula emerges from the shadows and bites her.

The mystery and power of the story centers on the dichotomy of good and evil and an exploration of the range of emotions that exist within all of us.

The ballet is divided into three acts. Acts I and III are focused on the story, while Act II is comprised of a humorous pantomime and lustful bacchanal, with the dancers costumed entirely in red. “The Red Dance”, which revolves around a wolf and a female object of his pursuit, could be R-rated by atmosphere alone, and is far more visceral and sexual than one normally expects from ballet. Both Act II and the projected text at the beginning of the show seemed to belong more to the world of cinema than ballet. Dracula has been done in film many times, but what made this show different and full of promise was the potential for exploration of the emotional aspects of the story through human movement and music.
 

Der Fledermaus is a wonderfully funny little three-act Viennese operetta by Johann Strauss. The opera tells a tale of revenge on the part of Dr. Falke, who many years earlier dressed as a bat for a masquerade ball, had been abandoned drunk on the side of the road by his friend Gabriel von Eisenstein. Walking home the next morning in his costume humiliated him and won him the nickname of "Dr. Bat". Falke waited years for just the right moment to orchestrate a counter trick against his friend. On the night Eisenstein is set to go to jail for insulting a police officer, Falke convinces him instead to take a side trip to a local party for a night of wine and women before he must serve his sentence. Of course, to escape detection, Eisenstein must “hide” in costume. Also attending in costume, set up by Falke, are Eisenstein's wife Rosalinde, her maid Adele, and the jailor Frank. Rosalinde recognizes Eistenstein but not vice-versa, and he attempts to woo the beautiful "Countess". She manages to acquire his watch for later proof against him - no matter that earlier in the night her lover, Alfred, was arrested in Eisenstein's place because they had been having a private dinner together! The storyline twists and turns, eventually bringing all the participants to jail the following morning, where the joke is eventually played out. Eisenstein now believes his wife's tête-à-tête with Alfred was part of the prank, so he forgives her, asking her forgiveness as well. Checkmated, he looks up to see Falke arriving with other guests from the party, hailing "The Bat's Revenge".
 

According to Chinese folklore, Zhong Kui is the god that drives away evil, captures demons, and brings good luck and happiness. Zhong Kui led by a bat is a traditional Chinese New Year picture.  In such pictures, he wields a sword as a little bat flies above him, thus indicating the full extent of his powers. Another design featuring red bats is called "limitless happiness," as in the color red in Chinese is homonymous with the character hong, which means great and grand.

The Bat Mask of Meng Laing, in the Hongyang Cave Opera, illustrates how colors represent human character.  The three Gangs ( Li Gang, Yao Gang, and Xue Gang ) were bold and obstinate, but in Peking operas they are portrayed as solemn and serious. Therefore red, the color of anger, is not allowed in their facial make-up, not even on their lips, and no pink powder (which symbolizes humor) is applied to their cheeks.

By contrast, in operas adapted from the Romance of the Yang Family, the cheeks of the two main characters Meng Liang and Jiao Zan, are powdered pink because these two men are humorous by nature. In Hongyang Cave, however, these same two no longer have pink cheeks, as this opera portrays them as elderly characters whose temperaments have changed.
 

Scott 1574

The face of Meng Liang, a warrior of the Song Dynasty, is painted predominantly red with the pattern of an inverted gourd on his forehead. This pattern represents the huohulu, a particular weapon he habitually used. With symbolic patterns, a painted face can also reveal a character’s status and personality.

In 1762, Christoph Willibald von Gluck became disenchanted with the formalized style of opera seria (serious opera was the predominant type of Italian opera and music in the 18^th century) and, in a return to the ideals of the original Florentine operas, he produced his first great "reform" three-act opera, Orfeo ed Euridice.   Orfeo, son of Apollo and Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, weds the dryad Euridice. A snakebite turns wedding into funeral. In the depths of sorrow, Amor, visits Orfeo with word from Jove that allows him to retrieve Euridice from the land of the dead. The catch: He must not look at her, nor explain why, or he will lose her forever. Armed only with his trusty lyre, he placates the guardians of Hades and finds his love. On the way back, Euridice can't understand why he won't look at her and he panics, in desperation, and you guessed it. Grief stricken, he is about to kill himself, but Amor snatches away his dagger and tells him he has proved his devotion and will be reunited with Euridice and lives happily ever after.
 

The painting by Pehr Hilleström the Elder of Orfeo ed Euridice depicts the cave scene in Act 3, Scene 1, where Orfeo is leading Euridice out of Hades.

Hopefully the opera, music and philatelic lover should now be inspired to underground, searching for the operatic bat.