The Merry Widow is one of the greatest operettas ever in my opinion, perhaps only second to Die Fledermaus. But seeing it for the first time around Christmas 2005 and again just last night, I found this Merry Widow to be a wholly uneven affair. The music is just wonderful, with the orchestral playing full of vitality and free spirit. The chorus do sing very well, but apart from the men don't really have much energy in their performance. The costumes and sets are truly stunning as well, though in the bigger numbers of the operetta the stage looks rather cramped. The cast are uneven, with Ailish Tynan's commanding Valencienne and Geoffrey Dolton's witty Njegus coming off best. Lesley Garett as Hanna is good, she never does shake off her broad accent in the dialogue but her singing especially in Vilja is outstanding and her acting charming. Tracey Wellborn is also not bad but unexceptional at the same time, lovely day but the dialogue delivery is rather mumbled. Apart from a cracking first appearance, the Damilo of Jeffrey Black also came across as rather flat. The staging is nothing infuriating or anything, but it is lacking in pathos and drama that the singing did in a way did do reasonably well but the dialogue didn't at all. The dialogue I found to be the weak link of this Merry Widow, instead of witty it is overlong and tedious complete with some variable delivery. In a nutshell, disappointing sadly, had the potential to be so much more and should've been. 6/10 Bethany Cox
2 Reviews
Christmas turkey
Gyran23 October 2008
There is life in this old warhorse, as I discovered when I watched the 2002 film version starring Yvonne Kenny and Angelica Kirchschlager. On the strength of it I went to see Welsh National Opera's new production starring Lesley Garrett. These days Lesley Garrett is better known as a cross-over diva but I am a great admirer of both her singing and acting ability, so I was keen to see this, her first straight operatic role in five years. Sadly the production was a disaster receiving savage notices from most of the opera critics in the national press. The BBC presumably bought it sight unseen. When they realized what a turkey they had, they buried it one lunchtime in the post-Christmas schedules.
The faults of the production are even more evident in this film production than they were in the live performance. Most of the budget seems to have been exhausted in engaging the services of Miss Garrett and in making the series of spectacular costumes that she wears. The sets are tatty and most of the cast are third-rate, giving the impression that the diva is making a guest appearance in an amateur production in one's local scout-hall.
The directors are Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser the Gallic duo who seem to be making a speciality of cut-price opera productions for British companies. The sets have no depth to them, all of the action being crushed into the front of the stage. This is mystifying given that the production was originally designed for the stage of the new Cardiff Millennium Theatre. Act II in this production is set not in Hanna's garden but in her house, so the summerhouse where the clandestine lovers hide is inexplicably plonked in the middle of her drawing room. Act III, at Chez Maxim is so cramped that the dancers Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo and Margo have scarcely got room to spell their names never mind perform a can-can.
Lesley Garrett looks and sounds wonderful, particularly dressed in a white silk Russian Hussar's outfit singing "Vilia". However, one disadvantage of having her in an operetta rather than an opera is that the spoken dialogue is in her broad Yorkshire accent. Jeffrey Black as Danilo is charmless and not up to the task vocally. Irritatingly, he chain-smokes throughout the production. Listening to him nearly drove me to drink. The gangling Tracey Welborn is effective vocally as de Rosillon, particularly in his solo "I know a place where we can go". He and Ailish Tynan, as Valencienne make an unlikely pair, rather like a ferret wooing a hamster. In fact insufficient attention has been given to the visual in most of the casting. The ladies and gentlemen of the WNO chorus may pass muster when dressed as Italian peasants but it requires some suspension of disbelief when viewing them as Parisian sophisticates. Only the men's chorus of "Who can tell what the hell women are?" achieves any sort of excitement. But the few musical high spots in this production never come anywhere near to compensating for the acres of tedious spoken dialogue
The faults of the production are even more evident in this film production than they were in the live performance. Most of the budget seems to have been exhausted in engaging the services of Miss Garrett and in making the series of spectacular costumes that she wears. The sets are tatty and most of the cast are third-rate, giving the impression that the diva is making a guest appearance in an amateur production in one's local scout-hall.
The directors are Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser the Gallic duo who seem to be making a speciality of cut-price opera productions for British companies. The sets have no depth to them, all of the action being crushed into the front of the stage. This is mystifying given that the production was originally designed for the stage of the new Cardiff Millennium Theatre. Act II in this production is set not in Hanna's garden but in her house, so the summerhouse where the clandestine lovers hide is inexplicably plonked in the middle of her drawing room. Act III, at Chez Maxim is so cramped that the dancers Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo and Margo have scarcely got room to spell their names never mind perform a can-can.
Lesley Garrett looks and sounds wonderful, particularly dressed in a white silk Russian Hussar's outfit singing "Vilia". However, one disadvantage of having her in an operetta rather than an opera is that the spoken dialogue is in her broad Yorkshire accent. Jeffrey Black as Danilo is charmless and not up to the task vocally. Irritatingly, he chain-smokes throughout the production. Listening to him nearly drove me to drink. The gangling Tracey Welborn is effective vocally as de Rosillon, particularly in his solo "I know a place where we can go". He and Ailish Tynan, as Valencienne make an unlikely pair, rather like a ferret wooing a hamster. In fact insufficient attention has been given to the visual in most of the casting. The ladies and gentlemen of the WNO chorus may pass muster when dressed as Italian peasants but it requires some suspension of disbelief when viewing them as Parisian sophisticates. Only the men's chorus of "Who can tell what the hell women are?" achieves any sort of excitement. But the few musical high spots in this production never come anywhere near to compensating for the acres of tedious spoken dialogue
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