Metropolitan Opera Company broadcasts live in Whitefish

Happy new year opera fans! The first live in high-definition broadcast of 2015 will wake us out of our winter post-holiday stupor with a glittering, eye-candy-filled new production of “The Merry Widow” by Franz Lehar on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 10:55 a.m. at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.

Tickets are available at the door for $20 adults/$5 students/$10 college students (cash or check only). The show’s run time is 2 hours 55 minutes, which includes one intermission.

“The Merry Widow” is likely to appeal to a large audience because it’s more “Broadway-like” than most Met operas. It is an operetta, not an opera. An operetta is defined as a genre of “light opera,” meaning light in terms of both the music and the subject matter. Also, an operetta will have some spoken dialogue, whereas in traditional operas, dialogue is always sung. “The Merry Widow” lies somewhere within the blurry area between traditional opera on one end of the performance spectrum and musical theatre on the other end.

This new production of Lehar’s “The Merry Widow” has been “Broadway-ified” in other ways, too. It is directed and choreographed by Broadway’s Susan Stroman, who won a Tony along with Mel Brooks for directing Broadway’s The Producers (not to mention four other Tony Awards). The cast includes Kelli O’Hara, a silver-voiced American stage actress who has been nominated for five Tony Awards for her Broadway and off-Broadway musical theatre performances. O’Hara is making her Met debut in “The Merry Widow.” After her run in “The Merry Widow,” O’Hara will play Anna in the Lincoln Center Theatre’s revival of “The King and I.” It’s interesting to note that O’Hara and Kristin Chenoweth shared the same voice teacher.

This production has been translated from its original German into English by Jeremy Sams, and the dialogue has been updated and modernized, once again blurring those lines between opera on one hand and musical theatre on the other.

Austro-Hungarian composer Lehar (1870-1948) actually helped create the genre from which American musical theatre developed. Lehar followed directly in the compositional footsteps of Johann Strauss II, the greatest composer of what’s called “Viennese operettas” (Strauss’ operetta “Die Fledermaus” is the most-performed operetta in history). In turn, Viennese operettas along with vaudeville were the inspiration for the American musical theatre genre.

Die-hard opera fans, do not despair: “The Merry Widow” has not completely defected from its Lincoln Center address at The Met to the Theatre District, as renowned American operatic soprano Renee Fleming sings the title role in this new production. Her reluctant suitor Danilo is sung by Nathan Gunn, the American operatic baritone known for his vocal prowess and acting ability. He also appeared on 2008’s list of “People Magazine’s The Sexiest Men Alive.” After that, baritone Gunn has been referred to as a “barihunk,” but I understand he personally prefers the term “hunkitone.” Gunn will star in Santa Fe later in 2015 in a world premiere of a new opera “Cold Mountain” based on the best-selling book. Rounding out the decidedly American cast of “The Merry Widow” and singing the role of Camille de Rosillon is Alek Shrader, a handsome young lyric tenor from Cleveland and winner of the 2007 Met Opera National Council Auditions.

The only non-American in the cast is British operatic baritone Sir Thomas Allen, singing the role of Baron Mirko Zeta. He is known for his excellent acting and still-robust vocal abilities at the age of 70.

Composer Lehar’s librettists were Viktor Leon and Leo Stein, who based their libretto on Henri Meilhac’s comedy play “L’attache d’ambassade.” If the name Meilhac sounds familiar to you, it should — Meilhac wrote the libretto for Bizet’s “Carmen,” among other operas. He also wrote the play that served as the basis for Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus.”

Lehar followed in Strauss’ compositional footsteps, producing music with exceptional melodic line and audience appeal. His “Merry Widow” debuted in Vienna in 1905 and almost immediately made Lehar a multi-millionaire. His music lives on in other genres, too: Lehar’s “Merry Widow” music was the inspiration for the first movement of Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 7,” for Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra,” and is a recurring musical theme in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1943 film “Shadow of a Doubt.”

Lehar had a tenuous relationship with Hitler’s Nazi Regime. Hitler enjoyed Lehar’s music tremendously, awarding him the Goethe medal for 1939-40, but was skeptical of Lehar’s Jewish connections within Vienna’s cultural milieu. Lehar himself was Catholic, but he married a Jewish woman who converted to her husband’s religion after the wedding. Most of Lehar’s librettists for his several operas composed as late as 1934 were Jewish; in fact, Lehar unsuccessfully tried to intercede with Hitler for one of them, but his librettist friend Fritz Lohner-Beda died at Auschwitz. Lehar is remembered in Vienna and in several cities in The Netherlands where streets have been named for him.

The basic story of “The Merry Widow” is a simple one: The countrymen of rich widow Hanna Glawari (Renee Fleming) attempt to keep her money within their principality of Pontevedro, an island nation off Croatia, by finding her a husband among the Pontevedrians. If she marries a foreigner, the money leaves the island nation with her. However, the story doesn’t take place in Pontevedro, but at the Pontevedrian embassy in Paris in 1900 where the Pontevedrian ambassador Baron Mirko Zeta is giving a ball. Act 2 is set in Hanna Glawari’s Parisian villa. In Act 3, the action shifts to Maxim’s, a Parisian night club complete with can-can dancers. All three acts are filled with plot twists of reluctant lovers, secret liaisons and romantic misunderstandings. The sets and the costumes are lush and sparkling, the music is melodic and lovely, and the dancing in Act 3 is fantastic.  

This new production of “The Merry Widow” debuted at The Met on New Year’s Eve. It will be broadcast live from The Met on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 10:55 a.m. at the Whitefish Performing Arts Center.