THE MERRY WIDOW

Franz Lehár (1870–1940) is an Austrian composer of Hungarian descent. He is most popular among the audience for his operettas, as his oeuvre includes almost 40 musical comedies. Outstanding among them are by all means The Land of Smiles and of course The Merry Widow, which was premiered in Vienna, in 1905. “Neither trivial nor light, but well written, musically constructed and theatrically ambitious performance puts before us a rather difficult task of providing three different venues, different atmospheres and excellent cast of actors and/or vocalists,” contemplated the stage director Vinko Möderndorfer on the eve of this production’s premiere back in the 2001/2002 season and added: “The Merry Widow is undoubtedly one of those musical works that keep calling for new and fresh productions. The audience just adores it, the singers love to sing it and the directors like to stage it. This is a seemingly effortless performance, full of dramatic turning points, witty characters as well as pleasant but not cheap music. Besides all this, The Merry Widow also tells a very interesting story, thus unveiling an eternal theme of searching for true love and happiness.”