Speelduur 188 minuten
Leading Role: Angelika Kirchschlager, Yvonne Kenny, Boje Skovhus, Gregory Turay
Director: Lotfi Mansouri
A production of the Franz Lehar opera The Merry Widow. New dialogue was commissioned from playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
Ondertiteling: Frans, Duits, Spaans
Geluid: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Stereo
Beeld: 16:9
The Merry Widow has been my favorite operetta since I became acquainted with it some 50 years ago, while I was a student in law school. I have a number of version of the operetta on CD. This was my second DVD. From the time the DVD began to play, it was gross disappointment. The set is unworthy of a great opera company. It reminds me of a set created by a second-rate community theater company, built on a stage in a public park. Even worse, the set was annoyingly under lighted. The staging/blocking was also disturbing - actors with lines crossing behind other actors, etc. The widow should be a women with whom a young nobleman would fall in love with - even though she was penniless. She should also be a woman that that same nobleman would immediately fall in love with again years later in Paris on first sight - regardless of her fortune. Yvonne Kenny simply doesn't look the part. The singing is about what would be expected. Compared to Lehar's Land of Smiles by Deutsche Grammophon, which features gorgeous settings, outstanding props, dazzling costumes, and believable actors with supurb singing voices, this production of the Merry Widow appears amateurish and pales by comparison.
Säveltäjä: Lehár, Franz, (1870 - 1948)
Esittäjä: Orchestra of the San Francisco Opera
Kapellimestari: Kunzel, Erich
Solisti: Kenny, Yvonne, sopraano
Solisti: Skovhus, Bo, baritoni
Solisti: Kirchschlager, Angelika, mezzosopraano
Solisti: Turay, Gregory, tenori
