Composer: Franz Lehár
Book: John Savournin
Lyrics: David Eaton
Conductor: Stuart Stratford
There are misconceptions, misfires and misunderstandings galore in this lavishly designed and terrifically fun production of Franz Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow.
The operetta, a co-production between Opera Holland Park, Scottish Opera and D’Oyly Carte Opera, is a new translation by John Savournin and David Eaton of Lehár’s work, moving the story away from Paris and instead to the mafia world of 1950s New York.
In this version, the mafia Don, Don Zeta (Henry Waddington) is celebrating his 50th birthday, and while his mafia family celebrate his half century, the head of the family is busy cooking up a scheme to marry off his consigliere Danilo (Alex Otterburn) to wealthy widow Hanna Glawari (Paula Sides), unaware of their turbulent romantic past. What follows is a fun romp with plenty of wit and humour as various relationships emerge and fail. In contrast, Danilo and Hanna’s previous relationship, failing many years before, starts to relight its spark.
The charismatic Danilo and intoxicating Hanna click slickly in this production, brought to life superbly by baritone Otterburn and soprano Sides. It is a relationship that is not given a huge amount of time to be rekindled before it is reignited in a swift conclusion to Act One, yet the pair works successfully with the material and Kally Lloyd-Jones’ choreography to develop the sweet and charming reuniting between the two. This is hindered a little by a very slow Act Two, where the pair seem to spin around in ‘will they, won’t they’ circles, which stifles some of the performance’s momentum, but this energy slide is eventually arrested by the two performers.
In addition, Don Zeta is energetic and enigmatic, performed well by bass-baritone Waddington. Savournin, who also directs, and Eaton’s translation is very tongue-in-cheek when evoking the mafia family environment, relying on clichés, quick fire punchlines and double entendres, such as the cheeky offering to ‘fire off some rounds’ between courting couples, and it’s through Waddington’s Zeta and the goofy Carmelo (Christopher Nairne) and Sam (Connor James Smith) where this caricature of the mafia is most present. While not all the jokes land, the trio does a great job of driving home the lightness of the operetta, particularly when Carmelo and Sam continuously spar, unsuccessfully, for Hanna’s affections.
As well as standout operatic performances, the production’s lavish design helps to quickly immerse us into Don Zeta’s home, Hanna’s gorgeous Sicilian villa and Maxim’s Bar. While some of the details are a little lost due to the stage’s distance from the audience and the venue’s expansive design, the glitz and glamour of these locations are still successfully made apparent through the designer takis’ vision.
The decision to move the production to the 1950s is a bold one, but this English translation of Lehár’s work largely succeeds. The Merry Widow’s colourful design, beautiful costumes and the cast’s stunning vocals bring the story to life with great energy. This is a fun production that entertains opera audiences both new and seasoned, and breathes new life into an acclaimed work.
Runs until 28 June 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
A Lavish Affair
