01-05-2025
The Merry Widow review — a mafia rewrite hits the target
Scottish Opera happened to choose the warmest day of the year so far to launch its miniature season of operetta, but the coincidence was apt, because it's hard to imagine a more sunlit, summery experience than this new production of The Merry Widow.
This co-production with D'Oyly Carte and Opera Holland Park is the Widow as we haven't seen her. John Savournin's staging translates the action to the 1950s world of the New York mafia where Don Zeta needs his mafioso family to get its hands on Hanna Glawari's fortune before it falls into the hands of their mob rivals, so he gives Danilo, his consigliere, the job of marrying her.
It works remarkably well because Savournin appreciates that the key to a successful
