***** (5 stars)
“Irresistibly Charming”
I remember thoroughly enjoying my first live experience of Merry Widow when Scottish Opera’s touring company came to the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh and totally wowed their audience with their scaled-down-to-fit/ accompanied by piano utterly enchanting and engrossing version of this piece which has been a firm favourite with audiences world-wide for the past 120 years.
The basic plotline is fairly simple. An impoverished middle-European state is desperate to replenish its coffers with the vast fortune of one of their daughters – Hannah Glawari, whose wealthy husband has recently died, leaving her all his wealth. It seems a brilliant idea to instruct the irresistibly charming Count Danilo to woo and wed her: unfortunately, these two have a history…
Scottish Opera have really gone to town with this exuberant, brightly-coloured, almost-over-the-top-but-not-quite production in collaboration with D’Oyley Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park. Before the curtain rises we have the usual ‘no phones, no photography’ warning delivered in a very gangsta style, inviting us to celebrate the Godfather’s 50th birthday, and inviting us to welcome Maestro Stewie to the pit, giving us a heads-up that this will be no conventional, frothily mittel-european performance.
The curtain rises on a riotous party taking place in the colourful Manhattan apartment of Godfather Don Zeta, head of New York’s Mafia families. We meet his wife, Valentina, various Mafia Dons and their wives, a French singer, and two new mobsters, recent arrivals from Italy, where Hanna Glawari is now in control of the vast Sicilian lemon groves that belonged to her lately-deceased husband.
Finally the Don arrives, and is saluted and presented with his birthday gift – a gleaming new cement mixer, with which he is utterly delighted.
It may seem that the Cosa is one big happy family – but it soon becomes apparent that all is not well. The Don’s wife is desperately in love with French cabaret singer Camille de Rossillon, while aware that being a Mafia wife means complete loyalty to the Don and all the Family; the married couples are definitely not getting on; the two Italians are having affairs with married women and feuding about which one of them is going to marry Hanna Glawari; and Don Zeta himself is anxiously demanding of his capo, Nicky Negus, where on earth Danilo, his consigliere, has got to – he simply must marry Hanna before someone else makes off with her. Nicky is aware of the past history between Hanna and Danilo, but Zeta isn’t – and he’s not an easy man to enlighten on such a tricky subject.
Hanna enters, in widow’s black, and is immediately surrounded by every male in the place, all eager to monopolise her and her millions. She deftly fields them all: she’s only here on a brief visit, she has to fly back to Sicily tomorrow. When they each start to declare that suddenly they have business in Sicily too, she shrugs her shoulders and invites them all to visit her in her villa.
And then Danilo appears, and it’s instantly clear that he’s magnetically attractive – and, though they try to hide it, that both he and Hanna can’t forget their past. They have several magnificent quarrels, both publicly and when they are momentarily left alone: she rages that she will never trust him, while he asserts that he will never say to her “I love you”.
Mr and Mrs Kromov burst in on the couple, she protesting her innocence in the face of accusations that she’s having an affair. He brandishes a fan, on which a message of love has been written, declaring that it’s proof of her affair – but it’s not hers, it’s Valentina’s, with de Rossillon’s message of love. Kromov shows it to Don Zeta, who promises to find its owner and gently reprimand them – unaware that it’s his wife’s…
In Sicily, everyone is letting their hair down at Hanna’s splendid villa. Plots and counterplots swirl and thicken, culminating in what seems to be Hanna’s betrayal of Danilo – she is discovered in a private room with de Rossillon. Unaware that Hanna has substituted for Valentina, who was saying a final goodbye to the Frenchman, he is broken-hearted. He leaves immediately for New York and his favourite haunt – Maxim’s club, where the dancing girls will console him. Hanna realises that he still loves her, and sets off after him.
in Maxim’s in New York, all present are having a gloriously abandoned time. Valentina, an ex- chorus girl has joined her friends in a special number which reminds Don Zeta of how they first met. Danilo arrives, roaring drunk, and demands that Hanna break off her engagement to Camille. She tells him she was only pretending, to protect someone else: he tells her of Don Zeta’s plan to bring her money into the Family. She asks him to tell her how he really feels – he can’t, thinking she will think he’s only after her fortune.
The Don finally discovers that it’s his wife’s fan which has the love message on it: he falls into a towering rage. He refuses to listen to Valentina, and declares he will divorce her and marry Hanna himself. When he learns that the terms of Hanna’s husband’s will means she will lose every cent if she remarries, he is stymied. Danilo seizes his chance, asks Hanna to marry him, and is accepted – only to learn that the will also states the fortune will pass immediately to Hanna’s new husband!
Camille rushes in, declaring his passionate love for Valentina. The Don’s rage threatens the Frenchman’s life – but Valentina intervenes, demanding that Zeta listen to the message she wrote for Camille on her fan. She is a loyal wife, and will never leave her husband, who envelops her in a loving embrace. Camille quietly leaves, and slowly so does everyone else, leaving Hanna and Danilo to savour their newly-found happiness.
This co-production was a joy to watch and, I reckon, for the performers too. It’s wonderful to see ‘serious’ singers allowed to loosen their metaphorical corsets and have fun on stage. I am in admiration of their ability to launch from speaking straight into song [a chat in the interval with the chief voice coach confirmed that a lot of work had been done to make this seem effortless] – not the easiest of things to do, especially while maintaining pretty respectable American, Italian, French and other assorted accents!
The sets were superb – the Manhattan apartment was simply glorious, the Sicilian villa’s exterior very atmospheric, and the entr’acte transformation to Maxim’s club was both very clever and a wonderfully choreographed piece of work. The costumes were a riot of colour, and I had serious envy of the wonderful pinstriped suits so many of the men were wearing. The complex choreography throughout was subtly designed to make it appear totally random, and the lighting enhanced the fluctuating moods throughout.
The performances of both principals and chorus throughout were outstanding – as always, it’s a joy to watch a chorus of individuals rather than a flock of sheep! Everyone on stage is worthy of mention, as are all the musicians in the pit and the wonderful Maestro Stewie who keeps them all in order… I was aware at times that the orchestra – particularly the brass – were so enthusiastic that they drowned some of the singers: but others had absolutely no problem riding on top of the waves of sound. I also had some reservations about the choice of setting which, through brilliantly creative, for me jarred against the lushly melting melodies and harmonies of the score. This was particularly obvious to me in the first act: it was still present in the second, but I was enjoying the drama so much it became of less importance. I guess even mobsters have their softer side, don’t they?
Many of the cast were ‘old favourites’, some of whom have been seen recently, others of whom were returning after some time. Of the former, Henry Waddington stood out as the distinctly larger-than-life Don Zeta, even when dressed for the beach, while among the latter his sidekick – Matthew Kellett’s Nicky Negus – was simply superb: accent and body language spot on.
But for me the star of the show was Alex Otterburn’s Danilo – the most gorgeous voice you can imagine, making me wonder how on earth Hanna could have resisted its allure for a single moment. Imagine my delight when I realised that the last time I saw Alex, he completely stole the show as Eddy in Mark Turnage’s Greek, which I’d gone to rather reluctantly and by which I’d been utterly bowled over. As one of Scottish Opera’s emerging artists, he was already quite obviously going places – I’m simply delighted that he’s come back to the company, and hope that we’ll be seeing more of him in Scotland very soon.
Scottish Opera presents The Merry Widow, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Runs until
Saturday 7th June, for more information go to: https://www.capitaltheatres.com/shows/the-merry-widow/
The production will tour to His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen and Opera Holland Park London more information available from: https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/the-merry-widow/
ScotsGay Arts 