“To Maxim’s then I go, to lovely girls I know”, sings reprobate Count Danilo Danilovitch, a playboy from Pontevedro whom anyone might envy for his charm and his irresponsible enjoyment of life. But that his cheeriness is only a façade becomes clear at once when Danilo runs into his compatriot, rich widow Hanna Glawari, at a ball of their ambassador Baron Zeta in Paris. What was once smothered by the Count’s blue-blooded family breaks out again in full force: suppressed love for an untitled girl who had to opt for a millionaire instead of him, and since her husband’s death is now the best match on the whole of the Parisian marriage market. Her money is planned to fill the empty coffers of Pontevedro, and should not land in the pocket of a foreigner. The best way to ensure this is to get her to marry her fellow-citizen, this same Count Danilo Danilovitch.

In his operetta classic “die lustige Witwe” Franz Lehár (1870-1948) depicts with much wit and catchy melodies how political exigencies, pride and a misunderstood sense of honour lead two people who love each other not to admit it. Words may be unspoken, but love is unbroken, and it all turns out right, as of course the audience must have surely expected of this lightweight operetta all along.

Anyone who expected to be supplied by Harald Schmidt on the operetta stage with the same fare as in his television shows had underestimated him. The popular entertainer and his assistant Christian Brey showed in their “Merry Widow” staging at Deutsche Oper am Rhein that it is possible to give a serious-minded performance of an operetta without damaging its good humour. Just as much as in its prime, the amusement value of the piece was for the public on the gains side.


 
***
Franz Lehár


DIE LUSTIGE WITWE
(The Merry Widow)
Operetta in three acts
Libretto by Victor Léon & Leo Stein
 
In deutscher Sprache
 

Musikalische Leitung Ralf Lange
Inszenierung Christian Brey, Harald Schmidt
Bühne Anette Hachmann, Elisa Limberg
Kostüme Petra Bongard
Choreographie Stefan Stewart
Chorleitung Christoph Kurig
Dramaturgie Hella Bartnig
 
Baron Mirko Zeta Peter Nikolaus Kante
Valencienne Anke Krabbe
Graf Danilo Danilowitsch Will Hartmann
Hanna Glawari Romana Noack
Camille de Rossillon Corby Welch
Vicomte Cascada Bogdan Baciu
Raoul de St. Brioche Raphael Pauß
Njegus Lutz Salzmann
Bogdanowitsch Lukasz Konieczny
Sylviane Lisa Griffith
Kromow Benno Remling
Olga Nassrin Azarmi
Pritschitsch Manfred Fink
Praskowia Cornelia Berger
Tänzerinnen Anastasia Siriatska, Stephanie Blasius, Sarah Biernat, Anna Roura-Maldonado, Victoria Wohlleber, Birgit Mühlram
Tänzer Ulrich Kupas, Joeri Burger, Dennis Grenz, Jonas Tilly, Victor Alfonso Zapata Cardenas, Alexander Andreyev
Chor Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein
Orchester Duisburger Philharmoniker