The Merry Widow

by Franz Lehar

seen by live streaming from The Metropolitan Opera New York on 17 January 2015

The Met's new production of 'The Merry Widow' is directed with great style and verve by Broadway's Susan Stroman and conducted by Andrew Davis. Renee Fleming sang the role of the widow Hanna Glawari, Nathan Gunn the reluctant suitor Count Danilo Danilovitch, Thomas Allen the ambassador Baron Mirko Zeta, Kelli O'Hara his wife Valencienne and Alek Shrader her would-be lover Camille de Rosillon. Carson Elrod provided extra comedy as the hapless aide Njegus. All had great presence served by sumptuous costumes and grand but deliberately stagey settings which presented a theatrical confection of Paris in la belle epoque.

  

The first act takes place in a grand embassy building - how can an impoverished Pontevedro possibly afford it? - but how irrelevant this question is to the whole affair! - and sets up the requisite elements of the frothy, not to say farcical plot. The second act takes place in the garden of Hanna's Parisian villa, with a convenient summer house to add to the machinations of the various lovers. The third act takes place chez Maxim (with a marvellous transformation between the acts) where all is resolved happily for the widow.

The singing was fine, exuberant where needed, but also delightfully tender at the appropriate moments. The dialogue was at times verging on the over-stretched, though it was probably less so for a live audience. The movement was graceful and elegant, with the singers dancing creditably but wonderfully supported by dancers obviously schooled in the Broadway tradition. Indeed, one of the most fascinating aspects of the piece to modern eyes is its position as a precursor of musical comedy - the memorable tunes, the spoken exposition of plot, the stock characters (frustrated lovers, lovers whom we know are destined to be happy at the end despite their wilfulness en route, the foolishly blind older husband, and his witless assistant), the chorus numbers (especially the grisettes chez Maxim) , the group singing by combinations of the main characters (especially the men singing about the mysteries of women). But the operatic tradition is still there with the fuller orchestration, and the demands on the voice which are well beyond those of (more recent) musicals; and of course the absence of electronic amplification.

The piece was sung and spoken in English, which gave a welcome and vital freshness to the proceedings, as the jokes and sheer wit of the libretto could be appreciated immediately. The translation was most adept at finding amusing English equivalents to (rather than literal translations of) the original, with some modern but entirely apt idioms ("it's a boy thing") and very clever almost Gilbertian rhymes.

All in all, a delightful evening's entertainment.