Franz Lehar, Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), lyrics by Victor Leon and Leo Stein.

Pontevedro in Paris or, “how much reality does an operetta need?”

1905 was the year of two great premieres, both focussing attention on women of exotic origins and real fascination. Richard Strauss’s Salome and Franz Lehar’s Lustige Witwe. They proceeded to conquer the entire known world. Lehar’s music can take the listener’s breath away because the unrelenting succession of the numbers, dance rhythms and tempos never gives the chance to draw a breath. How it came to be written makes an opera plot in its own right. “The action is set in Paris in the early years of the 20th Century, but its prehistory lies in the Balkan principality of Pontevedro. There, Count Danilo fell in love with a beautiful girl called Hanna, but she was poor and his uncle prevented their match. Hanna married the court banker, Glawari, who was elderly and very rich.he died soon after the wedding, leaving her his entire fortune. Danilo is now secretary at the Pontevedrin Embassy in Paris, and there his and hanna’s paths are about to cross again!”

Enjoy this fast-moving operetta as the plot is revealed.

I will recommend three performances that are available on CD, they are:

Franz Lehar, The Merry Widow, Highlights from Richard Bonynge’s Performing version, sung in English, with Joan Sutherland, Werner Krenn and Valerie Masterton. The National Philarmonic Orchestra and the Ambrosian Singers. This is the only recommended version with a full and very delightful overture. Available from: www.amazon.co.uk

Franz Lehar, Die Lustige Witwe, Lovro von Matacic with the Philarmonia Chorus and Orchestra. Sung in German, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Nicolai Gedda and Josef Knapp. Available from: www.amazon.co.uk

Franz Lehar, Die Lustige Witwe, John Eliot Gardiner with the Wiener Philarmoniker and the Monteverdi Choir, sung in German with Bryn Terfel, Barbara Bonney and Cheryl Studer. Available from: www.amazon.co.uk