![]() In a series of smart and thoroughly romantic plot moves, The Merry Widow is a sweet operetta. ![]() The fun begins when Hanna arrives to entice her suitors in a ladies’ choice dance and she uses this ploy to get Count Danilo to profess his lover for her. ![]() While he is matchmaking, Baron Zeta has failed to realize that his wife Valencienne (soprano Andriana Chuchmaan) is engaged in a passionate flirtation with a French officer Camille (tenor Stephen Costello), the Count de Rosillon. His solution involves having his attache Count Danilo (tenor Roger Honeywell) marrying the very rich widow Hanna Glawari (soprano Elizabeth Futral). It opens at ballroom of the Pontivedrian Embassy where Baron Zeta (bass-baritone Dale Travis), the Ambassador is dealing with the possible bankruptcy of his country. Lehar’s melodies and songs – “Vilja”, “The Merry Widow Waltz”, “You’ll Find Me At Maxim’s” and “Every Woman” never sounded better than under conductor Emmanuel Villaume’s deft leadership of the Lyric orchestra. Griffin’s wonderfully staged production suffered from some early sound problems including inaudible dialogue and vocals that were corrected in act two and three.įilled with a large cast including many veterans of the Chicago musical theatre scene together with five expert opera performers, the Lyric Opera’s melodic production is a most pleasant experience. This sweet, comic and heartwarming sentimental production is one of the celebrated and most popular operettas ever written. ![]() Libretto by Viltor Leon and Leo Stein, after Henri Meilhac’s comedy L’ attache d’ ambassade (1861)Įnglish lyrics and dialogue by Sheldon HarnickĪt the Lyric Opera of Chicago Lavish spectacle and melodic voices and music from ‘The Queen of Operettas’ engrosses audiencesįranz Lehar’s 1905, The Merry Widow, translated by Sheldon Harnick and sung in English is directed by Gary Griffin in his debut at the Lyric Opera of chicago. Operetta in three acts originally in German, sung in English ![]()
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