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The Merry Widow: Volksoper Wien

About the Event

The most significant work of the operetta genre is once again on the programme of Europe's leading operetta house — the Volksopern Wien — in this season.

Franz Lehár's masterpiece began its triumphant progress around the world in Austria's Danube metropolis with the 1905 world premiere. Surprisingly, the first performance of 'The Merry Widow' at the Volksoper took place only in 1953 since then, however, this operetta has been performed 750 times in five different productions and belongs to the core repertoire of the house.

The originality of this operetta lies in the open eroticism of the action and the sensuousness of the music, such as that expressed by 'lips are silent, violins whisper, love me…' The story is about a recently widowed millionairess who must find herself a husband for 'reasons of state'. The fact that the prospective husband turns out to be the fun‐loving Danilo ('Then I'm off to Maxim's') doesn't make the task of the Pontevidrinian diplomats any easier.

With 'The Merry Widow', Franz Lehár revealed his unique personal style. Like no other operetta composer before him, he successfully wove together music and action. In response to the criticism that his operettas were too operatic, tragic and sentimental, he answered: 'I cannot understand why it should be the aim of operetta to turn all that which is beautiful and sublime into the ridiculous and laughable. My purpose is to refine operetta!'

The fact that this statement is still relevant today guarantees the success of French director Daniel Dollé's new staging of the 'The Merry Widow' — set in a sensually intoxicating 'fin de siecle ambience'!

In German, with English surtitles

Cast / Production

Conductor: Alfred Eschwé
Direction and settings: Marco Arturo Marelli
Costume: Dagmar Niefind
Choreography: Renato Zanella

Baron Mirko Zeta, the Ambassador: Kurt Schreibmayer
Valencienne, Baron Zeta's wife: Rebecca Nelsen
Hanna Glawari, a wealthy widow: Mara Mastalir
Count Danilo Danilovitsch, First Secretary of the Pontevedrin embassy and Hanna's former lover: Carsten Süss
Camille, Count de Rosillon, French attaché to the embassy, the Baroness's admirer: Konstantin Lee
Vicomte Cascada, Latin diplomat: Alexandre Beuchat
Raoul de St Brioche, French diplomat: Roman Martin
Bogdanovitch, Pontevedrin consul: Joachim Moser
Sylviane, Bogdanovitch's wife: Tatiana Sokolova
Kromow, Pontevedrin embassy counsellor: Georg Wacks
Olga, Kromow's wife: Susanne Litschauer
Pritschitsch, Embassy consul: Franz Suhrada
Praskowia, Pritschitsch's wife: Sulie Girardi
Njegus, the Embassy Secretary: Boris Eder

Customer Reviews

4.6 of 5

  • Franz L.,

    Nov 2012

    eine herausragende Veranstaltung

  • Heinz S.,

    Oct 2012

    sehr ,sehr gut

  • KYRIAKI P., Greece

    Dec 2011

    Πάρα πολύ προσεγμένη παράσταση, εκπληκτική μουσική, φοβερές ερμηνείες, πολύ ευχάριστη βραδιά

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