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The Merry Widow
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The Merry Widow Sponsored by Prudential A co-production with Opera North
Operetta in Three Acts
Music: Franz Lehár
Book by Victor Leon and Leo Stein
New English Translation by Nigel Douglas by arrangement with
Glocken Verlag Limited
Premiered at the Theater an der Wein on December 30th 1905
First performance of this production by New Sadler’s Wells Opera at Sadler’s Wells Theatre on October 17th 1985
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Sarah Brightman as Valencienne
Sarah Brightman was born in 1960. Her theatrical, debut was at the age of thirteen in I and Albert at the Piccadilly Theatre. Subsequently she joined Pans People and Hot Gossip, steering them to the top of the charts with her record / Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper. In 1981 she played in Cats as a member of the original cast. Miss Brightman has been consistently training as a soprano and in 1982 she premiered Charles Strouse’s opera for children, Nightingale, at the Buxton Festival. She repeated the role in London at the Lyric Hammersmith. She appeared in The Pirates of Penzance at Drury Lane and in 1984 performed Song and Dance for BBC TV. In 1985 she has premiered Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem Mass in New York and London, appeared in the Arena in Verona for Opera Aid and performed Juliet’s Waltz Song by Gounod at the Royal Gala for the Commonwealth Games. She will perform a tribute to Jessie Matthews at the 1985 Royal Variety Performance. In early 1986 she will premier Kenneth Macmillan’s choreographed version of Requiem for American Ballet Theatre in a production that will appear at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. She is currently preparing a recording of folk songs by Benjamin Britten for the HMV Angel label and will star as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera in London in March 1986. |
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Hanna Glawari, a wealthy widow. Valencienne, Baron Zeta’s wife Praskowia Pritschitsch, Colonel Pritschitsch’s Russian Wife Kromow, wife of Kromow Sylviane Bogdanowitch Camille de Rossillon, a French poet. Count Danilo Danilowitsch Kromow, Head of Chancery at the Pontevedrian Embassy Raoul St Brioche, French aristocrat Viscount Cascada, French aristocrat Baron Mirko Zeta, Pontevedrian ambassador in Paris Njegus, Chancery Clerk at the Pontevedrian Embassy in Paris Colonel Pritschitsch, Military Attaché at the Pontevedrian Embassy Bogdanowitch, Consul at the Pontevedrian Embassy
Lob , Dodo, Joujou, Froufrou Grisettes, Cloclo, Margot, Servant, Waiter, Chorus of French and Pontevedrian Guests |
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Eiddwen Harrhy Sarah Brightman Joan Davies Janine Roebuck Una Buchanan Glenn Winslade Alan Oke Leon Berger Mark Curtis Paul Parfitt Julian Moyle Peter Jones Ian Comboy Stefan-Paul Sanchez
The Company |
Act I Grand Salon at the Pontevedrian Embassy in Paris
Act II The Garden of Hanna Glawari’s mansion.
Evening of the next day.
Act Ill The same, later that night.
Time: The turn of the century.
The Merry Widow Synopsis
Prologue
In the tiny Balkan Princedom of Pontevedro panic reigns. Almost all the country’s limited capital has passed into the hands of the court banker, Stetan Glawari, and he has done two unforgiveable things. First he has married a penniless beauty young enough to be his daughter, and secondly he has promptly died leaving her his entire fortune.
The ruling Prince of Pontevedro rings up his Ambassador in Paris, Baron Mirko Zeta, to warn him that Glawari’s widow Hanna is on the way there to “have a bit of fun”. She must at all costs be prevented from marrying a Frenchman and bankrupting her native land. The Ambassador is about to give the annual ball in honour of the Prince’s birthday, so he agrees to invite the Merry Widow as Guest of Honour, and to bring all his diplomatic skills to bear on her.
Act 1 — 3 days later
Zeta’s official residence. The party is in progress, and the dramatis personae are introduced; Zeta’s French wife, Valencienne, young, flirtatious, previously on the Paris stage she is on the brink of an affair with her compatriot Camille de Rossillon, who rashly writes the words ‘I love you’ on her fan; Njegus, an unconventional Embassy dogsbody; Cascada and St. Brioche, impoverished French noblemen anxious to marry money; various key members of Zeta’s staff and their discontented wives; and finally Count Danilo, four months at the Embassy, but more often to be found at Maxim’s than in the office. This is the man, Zeta feels, who shall save the day for Pontevedro; but we soon learn that back in the old country Hanna and Danilo had trodden hard on each other’s toes. Now, remarks Hanna, whenever a man says ‘I love you’ it is her millions he is
talking to. Danilo is needled into declaring that he will never use those words. Hanna spends the rest of the piece trying to make him do so; and Danilo, not entirely selflessly, promises Zeta to preserve her from prowling partisans.
Act 2
The following day Hanna gives a Pontevedrian party in her palais. She and Danilo continue to skirmish, deeply in love, but both with deeply wounded feelings. Zeta is under fierce pressure from Pontevedro to get the Widow paired off with a compatriot. Valencienne’s fan, with its compromising message, is causing chaos, and she and Rossillon are all but caught ‘in flagrante’. Njegus saves the day, and Hanna tries to turn the situation to her own advantage, but the pressure which she puts on Danilo misfires, and he storms off to the one place where he feels at home — Maxim’s.
Act 3
Later that evening, Hanna has engaged Njegus to create a replica of Maxim’s in the garden of her palais. She has borrowed ‘les Girls’ for the evening, and a riotous cabaret is in progress, with Valencienne offering one of her old routines. Danilo has tound the real Maxim’s closed, so he rejoins the party. He is deputed to issue an ultimatum to Hanna to marry a Pontevedrian, or see her country go down the drain. She is longing to marry a Pontevedrian — him — but how can she corner him into saying the forbidden words, ‘I love you’? Impasse. Not even Lehár’s most famous waltz tune does the trick. But don’t worry — the happy ending is only a few more twists away; for Hanna, for Danilo, even for Valencienne’s fan.
NIGEL DOUGLAS 1984 Reprinted by kind permission of Welsh National Opera.
MUSICAL NUMBERS
ACT ONE
Introduction - Pontevedro in Paree - "Speak for the men and the beauties"
1a - Ballroom Music
Duet - A highly respectable wife - (Valencienne, Camille) - "Look now's our chance"
Entrance - Anna & Ensemble - "Gentlemen, no more ! I'm still a Pontevedrian"
3a - Ballroom music
Solo - I'm off to Chez Maxime - (Danilo) - "My very heavy Fatherland"
Duet - All's one to all men when there's gold - (Anna, Danilo) - "One girl has almond eyes"
Finale Act I - Ladies' Choice! - (Anna, Valencienne, Danilo, Camille, St. Brioche, Carcada, Chorus) - "Ladies' choice! Did you hear the gladd'ning voice?"
ACT TWO
Intoduction, Dance and Vilia Song - (Anna & Chorus) - "No one must go yet, fellow countrymen"
Duet - Jogging in a one-horse gig - (Anna, Danilo) - "Gee up lassie, here we are"
March-Septet - You're back where you first began - (Danilo, Zeta, Cascada, St. Brioche, Kromow, Bogdanowitsch, Pritschitsch) - "It's a problem how to manage"
Melodrame & Dancing Scene - (Anna, Danilo)
Duet and Romance - Red as the rose in Maytime - (Valencienne, Camille) - "Dear friend, be calm, you know I want to get you married"
Finale Act II - (Ensemble) - "I wonder what it is they want"
ACT THREE
12a. - Entr'acte - Vilia - song
12b. - Interlude
The Cake-Walk
Ensemble - Eh, voila les belles Grisettes! - "The Grisettes of Paris greet you"
14a. - Ensemble (reprise) - (Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Clo-Clo, Frou-Frou, Margot, Danilo)
Duet - Love unspoken - (Anna, Danilo) - "Love unspoken, faith unbroken"
Company You're back where you first began (reprise) - "What to think, what to say, what to do"
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Please note that two pictures reproduced are copyright of Rex Features & Life. The other picture comes from Elden's website.
CD of Musical ( No Sarah)
DVD of Musical (No Sarah)
