Opera Scotland

Lustige Witwe 2025Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Merry Widow

If Die Fledermaus has always been the most popular of the great Viennese operettas, then The Merry Widow must run it a very close second.  Indeed many operetta fans do prefer the more warm-hearted aspect of this piece. Merry Widow was a particular favourite of Sir Alexander Gibson, who conducted many performances when he was musical director at Sadler's Wells, both in London and on tour to the four Scottish cities. Gibson met his wife at this time, as she was one of the dancers.

Scottish Opera have previously staged the work three times. Anthony Besch's memorable production, handsomely designed by John Stoddart, was performed frequently from 1973 to 1977.

Di Trevis directed it in 1989, and a small-scale production by Clare Whistler toured widely in 2008. It has also been seen in an excellent staging by the briefly revived Carl Rosa operetta company.

All these presentations took a fairly traditional approach to the text. This new look (with a fresh English translation) relocated the whole thing to 1950s New York, and set among warring mafioso crime families. In this concept, Hanna is a wealthy New York widow with estates in Sicily, while Don Zeta is determined to ensure that her millions don't go to the wrong tribe.  Acts one and three are clearly located in New York, while the central act sees the cast transferred to Hanna's Sicilian villa. The whole adaptation was carried through with a remarkable level of consistency, and the Edinburgh audience (at a packed matinee on I June) thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Most of the characters are given adjusted names, eg Carmelo Cascada and Sam Briochi, to embed them into this new view. For OperaSotland purposes we have maintained the traditional identities to coincide with previous casts.

American soprano Paula Sides first worked with Scottish Opera in Bernstein's Candide, but appeared many times previously at the Perth Festival with ETO in major roles by Mozart, Donizetti and Puccini. In the rewrite Hanna is a beauty from out West, so able to use her natural Tennessee delivery to great comic effect, contrasting with the New Yorkers. Her brief marriage and inheritance are illustrated in an animation during the overture - her husband the victim of an assassination.

Alex Otterburn returned north fresh from his excellent performances in Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots at the London Coliseum. His Danilo was portrayed as slightly more civilised than the other mobsters.

Camille, the love interest of Valencienne (Valentina in this version) remains French, but becommes a singer rather than an aristocrat. Nicky Negus, Zeta's henchman (Njegus in the original), has several excellent comic moments. When Zeta's suspicion of the Frenchman's attentions to his wife lead him to order Negus (Matthew Kellett) to 'take him out' a pistol is immediately pointed at the tenor and Zeta is only just in time to clarify his instruction. In Sicily the garden gazebo becomes Hanna's first-floor bedroom, complete with balcony, and the substitution of the two ladies involves Negus in beautifully timed clambering up and down the trellises. Great fun.

Other touches include Cascada and Briochi, as above, being played as two highly enthusiastic recent arrivals from Sicily, complete with wild semaphoring gestures and Italian accents. Kromow is described as a Russian mobster (how very topical) and he and his domineering wife even do a Russian style dance in Sicily. The 1950s New York setting led to thoughts of Guys and Dolls (Loesser's hoodlums are all far more soft-centred). Kiss Me, Kate also came to mind, though there was never much chance that Negus would give us a verse of 'Brush Up Your Shakespeare'.

Stuart Stratford secured superb playing from his orchestra, all very authentically Viennese in style. The entire production, including Scottish Opera's orchestra and chorus (several of whom are listed in solo roles below) took part when the staging moved to Holland Park for five well-received performances at the end of June.