Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow)

Sung in English

Lehár’s greatest hit returns to Opera North for Autumn 2018, in Giles Havergal’s charming fin-de-siècle production, first seen in 2010.

The question of who the young, beautiful and stupendously wealthy widow Hanna Glawari will take as her second husband is a matter of national economic importance for the little-known – and nearly bankrupt – Balkan state of Pontevedro. If she marries a foreigner, Pontevedro will lose Hanna’s millions. So when the widow arrives in Paris, it’s a cause of high excitement among French bachelors everywhere and high anxiety for the Pontevedrian ambassador, Baron Zeta, who must do everything he can to make sure she remarries a suitable – Pontevedrian – man.  

Uniting Parisian sensuality with Viennese sophistication, The Merry Widow’s lushly glittering score is a riot of colour, elegantly whirling between can-can, galop and waltz, and studded with songs including Hanna’s folk-story ‘Vilja’ and the ‘Love unspoken’ duet.

Máire Flavin and Katie Bird share the role of Hanna, while Amy Freston (Valencienne) and Geoffrey Dolton (Zeta) return from the 2010 cast, joined by Nicholas Watts as Camille, and Quirijn de Lang as Danilo. Martin André conducts, returning to Opera North following L’enfant et les sortilèges and Osud in The Little Greats season in 2017.