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Franz Lehár, Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow)

I: Introduction - "Verehrteste Damen und Herren"

I: "So kommen Sie!...Ich bin eine anständ'ge Frau"

I: "Bitte, meine Herr'n...Gar oft hab' ich's gehört"

I: "O Vaterland...Da geh' ich zu Maxim"

I: "Damenwahl!"

I: "Oh kommet doch, ihr Ballsirenen"

I: "Der junge Mann tanzt Polka"

II: Intoduction

II: "Es lebt eine Vilja"

II: "Heia, Mädel, aufgeschaut...Dummer, dummer Reitersmann"

II: "Wie die Weiber man behandelt? - Ja, das Studium der Weiber ist schwer"

II: Dialog - Spielszene und Tanzduett mit Dialog

II: "Mein Freund, Vernunft - Wie eine Rosenknospe im Maienlicht erblüht"

II: "Ha! Ha! Wir fragen, was man von uns will? - Den Herrschaften hab' ich was zu erzählen"

II: "Ein flotter Ehestand soll's sein - Das hat Rrrrass'"

II: "Es waren zwei Königskinder"

III: Tanzszene

III: "Ja, wir sind es, die Grisetten"

III: "Lippen schweigen"

III: "Ja, das Studium der Weiber ist schwer"

Lehár's The Merry Widow

Helmut Lohner (stage director), Franz Welser-Möst (conductor) – Opernhaus Zürich

Opera
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Cast

Helmut Lohner — Stage director

Rolf Langenfass — Set designer, costume designer

Robertus Cremer — Lighting

Giorgio Madia — Choreographer

Dagmar Schellenberger — Hanna Glawari

Rodney Gilfrey — Graf Danilo

Ute Gfrerer — Valencienne

Program notes

The Merry Widow is a pitch-perfect example of everything we love about operetta as a genre: lightheartedness, cheekiness, slapstick comedy... all brought to the fore with brio in this remarkable production from Helmut Lohner, starring the stunning Dagmar Schellenberger in the role of Hanna Glawari.

The operetta emerged as a counterpoint to the French Grand Opera tradition, a heavily-coded genre that leaned heavily into serious, somber plots and bombastic style. With an almost anti-intellectual stance and astonishing irreverance, operetta poked fun at these solidly-established academic codes, leading Saint-Saëns to once quip that "the operetta is an opéra-comique's daughter gone bad—but those kinds of girls have their own kind of charm." And it seems that turn-of-the-century audiences were indeed charmed: The Merry Widow was performed more than 20,000 time in the four years following its 1905 Viennese premiere.

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