The Merry Widow

SHE'S BEAUTIFUL! SHE'S RICH! AND IF SHE CAN JUST GET THAT PLAYBOY DANILO TO PROPOSE, SHE'LL BE DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY, TOO!  

And so will the Ambassador of Pontevedro. Why? Because Hanna, the Merry Widow, is his nation's wealthiest citizen. And if she's lured away by some Frenchman, she'll take all her lovely money with her, causing a financial meltdown of epic proportion.

Time to institute a romantic stimulus plan!

Flirtations and assignations fly, swept along by Lehár's magical score. The famous "Vilja" song, the "Merry Widow Waltz," and more! Enjoy this glorious music you know so well — and Gary Griffin's glittering new production!

Elizabeth Futral sounds and looks like a million bucks! "The airborne shimmer of her voice floats like enchanted quicksilver." LA Weekly

Roger Honeywell: "Dashing and stalwart, he sings with a tenoral sweetness that matches his surname." Chicago Tribune

TIME:
Early 1900s

PLACE:
Paris

ACT ONE:
The Petrovenian Embassy

Intermission

ACT TWO:
Garden of Hanna’s mansion

ACT THREE:
Maxim’s

ACT ONE

A glittering ball is taking place at the Petrovenian Embassy in Paris. Toasts are given by Viscount Cascada and Baron Mirko Zeta, Petrovenia’s ambassador to France. Valencienne, Zeta’s wife, takes aside the dashing Camille de Rosillon. He writes “I love you” on her fan, since she won’t let him say it aloud. Hoping he’ll soon marry, she frustrates him by insisting that she’s a respectable wife ( Do listen, please ).

Zeta has requested the appearance of the embassy attaché, Count Danilo Danilovich. Njegus, an embassy clerk, lets Zeta know that Danilo will arrive shortly. The count is Zeta’s candidate to marry the wealthy young widow Hanna Glawari, so that her 20 million francs will stay in Petrovenia. Viscount Cascada, the diplomat Raoul St. Brioche, and the other male guests are thrilled to welcome Hanna, who feels somewhat embarrassed by their attentions ( Gentlemen, how kind! ).

Hanna responds to the effusive greetings of Zeta and Valencienne by inviting everyone to a party at her home the following day. Again Valencienne takes Camille aside to declare that it is Hanna he will marry, while she herself will remain a respectable wife. Danilo appears, escorted by Njegus, who goes off to announce the count’s arrival to Zeta. Danilo reflects on his life: When the dull workday is over, he invariably heads for Maxim’s ( Oh, Fatherland ).

Danilo orders Njegus not to announce him – he’s exhausted and wishes to take a nap. He’s asleep when Hanna discovers him. Once he awakens, she explains that she’s moved to Paris to enjoy herself and possibly to get married. Hanna reminds Danilo that he’d wanted to marry her back home in Petrovenia, but his family threatened to disinherit him, since Hanna was penniless. She then married, and her husband’s demise left her with a fortune. She laments that now, when a man says “I love you” to her, he’s really saying he loves her money. Danilodeclares that he’ll never say “I love you.”

Zeta insists that Danilo must marry for his country’s sake, and that his bride must be Hanna. Danilo adamantly refuses. The other men surround Hanna, anticipating the next dance ( Ladies’ choice! ). Danilo woos various female guests, while Valencienne urges Hanna to choose Camille. Hanna insists that she’ll dance only with aman who, by his expression, shows no interest in  her. When Hanna offers Danilo the dance, he in turn offers it to any man present who will pay 10,000 francs. After they depart in outrage, Hanna resists Danilo but he finally takes her in his arms and they dance delightedly together.

ACT TWO

Singers and dancers regale Hanna’s guests with Petrovenian-style entertainment. She sings a song that tells the tale of a wood sprite who loved a huntsman ( There oncewas a vilja ).

Zeta compliments Hanna on her party’s Petrovenian spirit. She responds, however, that during the evening she’ll present a  Parisian  party, as a surprise for Danilo. Finding this a positive development, Zeta orders Njegus to fetch Danilo. When he appears, Hanna notes that he’s been avoiding her. He chalks it up to military tactics – he’s just doing what smart cavalry officers would do ( Heia! See the horseman come ).

Hanna is still being pursued by Cascada and St. Brioche. Led by Zeta, these two – along with Danilo and the Petrovenian diplomats Bogdanovich, Kromov, and Pritchitch – commiserate on how difficult women are ( Every woman ). Once Hanna and Danilo are again alone, she asks whether it’s all right if she marries the man she has in mind. When he snaps that she can marry whomever she pleases, she declares that he’s jealous. He can’t decide whether he is or not! They stomp off in different directions. Now once again Camille woos Valencienne ( Red as the rose of Maytime ) before drawing her into thegarden’s pavilion.

The two are seen by Njegus, who wonders what to do. When Zeta is about to enter the pavilion, Njegus claims that it’s occupied. That doesn’t prevent Zeta from peering through the keyhole, where he observes Camille with a woman. Zeta announces to Danilo that he’s discovered Camille’s new  innamorata.  When Zeta peers through the keyhole again, he sees a woman he’s convinced is his wife. But Njegus manages to pull Valencienne from the pavilion and replace her Hanna, leaving Zeta totally confused when Hanna and Camille emerge together from the pavilion ( What’s all the shouting for, pray tell? ) To save Valencienne from disgrace, Camille plays along with Hanna when she announces that she and Camille are engaged. Hearing this, the angry Danilo tells a story about a prince and a princess: They loved each other, but the prince kept his feelings to himself and the princess married someone else instead. The despairing prince left her, crying “Go! Wed him! Much good may it do!” With those words, Danilo rushes off to Maxim’s, but his anger has convinced Hanna that hereally does love her.

ACT THREE

At Maxim’s the dancing girls – joined by Valencienne – entertain Danilo ( Here we are,grisettes and playgirls ).

Zeta and Danilo receive a cable informing them that unless Hanna’s millions are guaranteed for Petrovenia, the nation will go bankrupt. Zeta insists that Danilo respond patriotically by forcing Hanna to reconsider marriage to Camille. When he tells her that her country forbids the marriage, she answers that she never intended to go through with it. The tryst in the pavilion was between Camille and a married woman; Hanna took her place, to save the lady’s reputation. Danilo finally admits that he loves Hanna ( Strings are sighing ).

The diplomats are thrilled – as is Valencienne – when Danilo informs Zeta that Hanna will not be marrying Camille. The Petrovenians’ reaction turns to horror upon hearing Hanna reveal the terms of her late husband’s will: She must give up her fortune if she remarries. Danilo now exclaims ecstatically, “Hanna, I love you!” and formally asks her to marry him. She accepts, revealing to one and all that once she remarries, the fortune she will be forfeiting will actually go to the Fatherland!

Having found Valencienne’s fan near the pavilion, Njegus brings it to Zeta, who sees “I love you” on one side and is furious. Valencienne insists that he read the other side, where she has written, “To my loving husband from his adoring wife.” All are delighted with the outcome (Finale:  Oh, the study of feminine ways ).

	Hanna Glawari Elizabeth Futral
	Danilo Roger Honeywell
	Valencienne Andriana Chuchman
	Camille Stephen Costello*
	Baron Zeta Dale Travis
	Njegus Jeff Dumas*
	Raoul St. Brioche David Portillo
	Viscount Cascada Paul La Rosa
	Pritchitch Larry Adams*
	Kromov James Rank*
	Bogdanovich Bernie Yvon*
	Sylviane Mary Ernster*
	Praskovia Ann McMann*
	Olga Susan Moniz*
	Conductor Emmanuel Villaume
	Director Gary Griffin*
	Set Designer Daniel Ostling*
	Costume Designer Mara Blumenfeld*
	Lighting Designer Christine Binder
	Projection Designer John Boesche
	Chorus Master Donald Nally
	Choreographer Daniel Pelzig
	Ballet Mistress August Tye
	Wigmaster and Makeup Designer Richard Jarvie

Click here to view the complete cast list for The Merry Widow.  

*Lyric debut

Google the words “merry widow” and you’ll be confronted with 190,000 entries. Among them are videos of the 1934 movie with Jeanette MacDonald and Maurice Chevalier; numerous advertisements for women’s lingerie (a corset so named was worn by Lana Turner in the 1952 movie); and even a Merry Widow cocktail (stir maraschino and cherry brandy with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, add a cherry, and serve).

The source of the fame and notoriety for these two words is not Hollywood, Madison Avenue, or The Bartender’s Guide, but 1905 Vienna. There, in a place and time filled with very serious characters – Schoenberg, Freud, and Mahler, to name a few – composer Franz Lehár and librettists Victor Léon and Leo Stein gave the world The Merry Widow, which became arguably the most popular operetta of all time.

Lyric last presented The Merry Widow in 1986-87. This season it gets a new production by a winning major-league team that’s locally based: stage director Gary Griffin (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), set designer Daniel Ostling and costume designer Mara Blumenfeld (both Lookingglass Theatre) will all make Lyric Opera debuts, joined by lighting designer Christine Binder (Lyric, Lookingglass). Emmanuel Villaume, who conducted Manon last season, will be on the podium. Lyric favorite Elizabeth Futral will portray the merry widow, Hanna Glawari, and Roger Honeywell ( The Pirates of Penzance, 2003-04 and Doctor Atomic, 2007-08) will star as Count Danilo Danilovich. Also featured are Stephen Costello (debut, see “Entrances & Encores,” p. 20) as Camille, Dale Travis as Baron Zeta, Andriana Chuchman as Valencienne, and Jeff Dumas(Lyric debut) as Njegus.

“The Merry Widow’s got heart, warmth, and style, and it’s a stunning piece of music. It’s a very warm, positive story about love, and it comes out the way you hope it will. It’s also very sophisticated.” says Griffin, who made his Broadway directing debut in 2005 with The Color Purple, a production that garnered 11 Tony nominations.

Lehár’s music for The Merry Widow saturates the listener with fin de siècle elegance. While the story takes place in Paris, the music is pure Viennese, evoking that magical time before World War I, when the intellectuals and the bourgeoisie filled the cafés while the rich and influential danced at lavish balls. The Merry Widow is the last great soirée of that golden age, a celebration of Viennese sweetness and froth. Lehár infused his score with both, giving us unforgettable tunes: “Vilja,” the “Women, Women” septet and, of course, “The Merry Widow Waltz,” among the most famous waltzes ever written.

“I think many people will come for the music and then get seduced by the story,” says Griffin. “It’s comic, it’s very funny, but it’s also very romantic. We want to deliver the warmth and heart of it.”

The Merry Widow begins at a reception at the Parisian embassy of Pontevedro (a fictional Eastern European country). Pontevedro’s richest citizen is due to arrive, a glamorous young widow named Hanna Glawari whose Pontevedrian bank account holds the majority of the country’s money. Should she marry a foreigner and take her money elsewhere, national bankruptcy would ensue. Ambassador Zeta urges his attaché, Count Danilo, to keep foreign fortune-hunters away from Madame Glawari and to consider marrying her himself.

Danilo once had a chance to do so in his youth, when Hanna was a poor farm girl, but Danilo’s family objected. He was sent to Paris, where he now spends his free time at Maxim’s, chasing women and drinking Champagne. Back in Pontevedro, Hanna married a rich older man who dropped dead a few days after the wedding.

When Hanna and Danilo meet again in Paris, she tells him that now that she’s rich, perhaps she’s easier to love. Danilo doesn’t want to be perceived as a fortune hunter and won’t admit to his love for Hanna, and Hanna, likewise won’t admit that she loves him .

There are several comedic plot complications, including a subplot involving the ambassador’s wife carrying on with another man. Finally, Hanna tells Danilo that once she marries, she will have no money. Danilo then confesses his love for her and only then learns that she will have no money because of an odd provision in her deceased husband’s will: Hanna’s marriage would cause her fortune to pass to her new husband! Hanna and Danilo are finally together and Pontevedro remains financially stable.

“It’s a three-act piece,” says Griffin, “and I love three acts. The first act is all about learning the characters and getting into their world. The second act scrambles that world a little bit, and then you have a third act, which resolves everything. It’s a wonderful journey, and those who take it all in will have a great time.”

The production, sung in English, with new lyrics by Sheldon Harnick of Fiddler on the Roof fame, will have the look of the late 19th century. A painting by James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902), “Too Early,” inspired Ostling’s vision for The Merry Widow’s first-act set. “The painting is of a large room with shiny floors and very elegant sparkling walls that were whited out,” says Ostling. “The figures in ball gowns really popped.”

For Act Two, Ostling drew inspiration from classic Brassaï photographs of Paris. “His gorgeous silhouettes create an incredible sense of depth,” Ostling says. (Brassaï lived from 1899 to 1984. His iconic black-and-white photos of Paris are displayed the world over, including at the Art Institute of Chicago.)

Act Three looks as though it were a Toulouse-Lautrec painting – earthy figures, pastels on brown paper – the naughty side of Paris.

“We wanted to go back to the original text and react to it in a minimal way,” says Ostling of The Merry Widow. “We want to make the work fresh!”

Some of that freshness will come from the merry widow herself, Elizabeth Futral, who was last here to sing Violetta in the 2007-08 season-opening La traviata. “Many operagoers may not realize that an operetta role is no less difficult than a role from the standard operatic repertoire,” says the soprano. “ The Merry Widow makes plenty of vocal demands on its lead roles. There’s spoken dialogue to memorize and a little something called comedic timing that one doesn’t have to worry about in Traviata. Oh, and one other thing – in The Merry Widow, there’s dancing, too! A lot of hard work and meticulous preparation goes into an operetta production. But it’s all worth it when the end product is charming, funny, and captivating. That’s exactly what a good performance of The Merry Widow should be!”

The Merry Widow almost didn’t happen. The original composer chosen to supply the music showed little interest and after a few months withdrew from the project. Franz Lehár’s name was tossed into the mix, but the librettists doubted he could conjure the proper Parisian atmosphere they felt the piece required. (Lehár was an Austrian of Hungarian descent and had studied at the Prague Conservatory before becoming a military bandmaster in Vienna.)

Within a few hours after his first reading of the libretto, Lehár came up with the second act’s “Dummer, dummer Reitersmann” (“Silly, Silly Cavalier”), which sounds as though Offenbach could have penned it. Lehár got the job and he composed the musical score over the summer of 1905.

Soon after the world premiere in December 1905, productions appeared throughout Europe and the U.S. The Merry Widow became an international sensation with recordings, movies, and more than 500,000 live performances by 1960.

“I would love for people to come to The Merry Widow with no expectations so they could just take it in,” says Griffin. “The fact that it’s so dramatically sophisticated should surprise everyone. This is not a light, silly piece that makes fun of people. These characters are based in real types. Even though the situation has a certain farcical element to it, good farce has to be based in the truth for it to work well.”

“Gary Griffin is an actor-driven director,” says Roger Honeywell, Lyric’s leading man for Widow, who was a professional stage actor before turning to opera. “He really understands actors and he really understands story, which is right up my alley. Much of the time, directors don’t delve into the characters or the book as much as somebody like Gary. I’m really looking forward to The Merry Widow, and I’m also looking forward to working with Elizabeth Futral again. We certainly had a good chemistry when we were doing Pirates!” (Futral sang the role of Mabel opposite Honeywell’s Frederic.)

Of the hundreds of Viennese operettas composed between 1855 and 1930, the two that are still with us are Die Fledermaus (1874), by Johann Strauss, Jr., and Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow. Strauss made operetta international entertainment, and Lehár took operetta to its peak of romantic elegance.

The Merry Widow opens at Lyric on Saturday, December 5. Come for the music and be seduced by the story.

Discography and Videography

CDs

Rothenberger, Köth, Gedda, Ilosfalvy; Bayerischer Rundfunk, cond. Mattes. (EMI)

Schwarzkopf, Steffek, Gedda, Waechter, Knapp; Philharmonia Orchestra, cond. Matačič. (EMI)

Studer, Bonney, Trost, Skovhus, Terfel; Vienna Philharmonic, cond. Gardiner. (DG)

Pre-1960

Schwarzkopf, Loose, Gedda, Kunz; Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Ackermann. (EMI or Regis)

Many Merry Widows have come and gone in the catalogue. Two that have stayed the course star Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who recorded the work initially in 1953 and then again (after stereo came in) nine years later. In both performances the late German soprano is an exceedingly lively Hanna, ultra-sophisticated in her vocalism and exceptionally persuasive in spoken dialogue. Those comments apply to all of Schwarzkopf’s colleagues in these performances. What tips the scale in favor of the second recording is Eberhard Waechter’s Danilo; he may be a baritone, necessitating a few lower options in the music here and there, but the lines are still recognizable. In contrast, the baritone of the earlier recording, the mellow-toned Erich Kunz, has a limited range and must have much of Danilo’s music virtually rewritten to ensure his vocal comfort. Otto Ackermann, the 1953 conductor, who should have earned much greater renown internationally,  had a glorious way with operetta, and no tenor could soar through Camille’s lovesick melodies with the ease and shine of Nicolai Gedda.

In 1967, opposite the ebullient Anneliese Rothenberger (another hugely successful operetta interpreter), Gedda makes a capital Danilo, and their recording is fully as recommendable as those of Schwarzkopf. More than two decades later, five exceptionally musical artists – Cheryl Studer, Barbara Bonney, Bo Skovhus, Bryn Terfel, and Reiner Trost – take up the challenge of Lehár. In their performance (supported by Sir John Eliot Gardiner in the pit), as with their predecessors’, this music is handled with all the elegance and attention to detail that these performers would bring to Mozart. It’s not at all an accident that great exponents of The Merry Widow and Die Fledermaus are almost invariably fine Mozartians!  

DVDs

Schellenberger, Gfrerer, Beczala, Gilfry; Opernhaus Zürich, cond. Welser-Möst, dir.Lohner. (Arthaus Musik)

de Arellano, Starzinger, Hausmann; Seefestspiele Mörbisch, cond. Bibl, dir. Lohner. (ORF)

You can’t go wrong with either of these productions, which are given an authenticity thanks to direction by one of Vienna’s most popular actors, Helmut Lohner (whose Frosch in Die Fledermaus has become legendary). He’s able to pull off effective staging in two very different venues: a typical European opera house and an outdoor operetta festival. The famous Seefestspiele Mörbisch in Austria is on a lake, with an enormous stage, a notably sumptuous visual presentation, and a massive number of performers. The vocal standard is higher in Zürich, thanks to Damgar Schllenberger (title role) and two dashing gentlemen, Rodney Gilfry (Danilo) and as Camille, the tenor who debuts at Lyric as Faust this season, Piotr Beczala. In addition, Ute Gfrerer’s skills as Valencienne include prowess as a dancer, making for a highly effective can-can in Act Three. In both performances you feel that irresistible Viennese spirit, thanks to artists whose dramatic involvement is such that you’ll appreciate their every moment onstage, both sung and spoken — even if you don’t speak German!