|
A High-level Production
'The Merry Widow', heard by GIUSEPPE PENNISI
The Merry Widow is much too often treated as a 'holiday season' family show. Thus, it is staged by make-shift companies, with an overly simplified, if not altogether rudimentary, orchestra and only a few dancers, possibly on loan from a graduation class of some nearby Dancing Academy. This is neither Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow as originally conceived nor the production I saw in Verona on 18 December 2010 -- the basis for this review. The Merry Widow has sublime music; for this reason it has been one of the favorite scores of conductors such as Bernstein, Karajan, Kleiber, Matacic and many others amongst the best batons of the twentieth century. The 'operetta' has been also much appreciated by singers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Nicolai Gedda...
Copyright © 31 December 2010
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
|
