Latest news with #TheMerryWidow
The Guardian
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Trial by Jury/A Matter of Misconduct! review – gags and Spads in Scottish Opera's sparkling double bill
Ten years after conductor Stuart Stratford left Opera Holland Park to begin a stabilising and fruitful relationship as Scottish Opera's music director, the traffic this summer is in the other direction in a trio of co-productions, originating in Scotland, with D'Oyly Carte Opera a third partner. As John Savournin's broad and brassy The Merry Widow tours across Scotland before its London transfer, this new double bill adds a 150th anniversary revival of Gilbert and Sullivan's first success and a contemporary political satire to a colourful package. Savournin also directs Trial By Jury, which swaps the courtroom for a TV studio in a sparkling update that is more Jerry Springer than Judge Judy. Patter-song master Richard Suart is The Learned Judge – who eventually gets the girl, jilted bride Angelina (soprano Kira Kaplan) – and company favourite Jamie MacDougall is on his best camp form as the Defendant, Edwin. Kally Lloyd-Jones gives the Bridesmaids, led by Amy J Payne, some laugh-out-loud geriatric cheerleader choreography to complement their outrageous frocks, and the jurors' diverse costuming runs the gamut from lab coat and dress kilt to TV-am sweater and perm. Edward Jowle (as Floor Manager/Usher) is one of a quartet of young singers on the company's Emerging Artists programme given the chance to shine in both shows. In the pit, Toby Hession conducts a swaggering account of Sullivan's music; Hession is also the composer of the double bill's new operetta set in the press room at No 9 Downing Street. His score also owes debts to Sondheim and John Adams and plays with its heritage stylishly in Laura Attridge's production. Hession and librettist Emma Jenkins have been nurtured through short pieces for Scottish Opera's small-scale touring and A Matter of Misconduct! is a sophisticated extension of those projects, with baritone Ross Cumming as ambitious politician Roger Penistone (fnar, fnar) and mezzo Chloe Harris his wife, Cherry, a would-be wellness guru (or 'Poundshop Paltrow'). There are gags aplenty at the expense of politicians in Westminster and Holyrood, and possibly the first operatic rhyming of both 'vaginal dryness' and 'clitoral stimulator', but this pacy piece also finds room for some stratospheric coloratura from Kaplan as sassy lawyer Sylvia Lawless, and a lovely duet for the rather unlovely central couple. Tenor MacDougall, as Malcolm Tucker-esque Spad, Sandy Hogg, handles the score's trickier music with aplomb. At Theatre Royal, Glasgow, on 16 May. Then at Festival theatre, Edinburgh, on 30 May and 6 June and Opera Holland Park, London, on 24 and 26 June.
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Scotsman
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Scottish Opera: The Merry Widow, Glasgow review: 'a dizzying theatrical tsunami'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scottish Opera: The Merry Widow, Theatre Royal, Glasgow ★★★★ To appreciate this brazen new Scottish Opera production, nay re-envisioning, of Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta The Merry Widow, there's absolutely no place for preconceptions. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gone are the fin-de-siècle Parisian glamour, haughty socialites and syrupy comedic intrigues of high society, to be replaced by the Mafia world of 1950s New York and Sicily, with all its hard-edged hierarchies, callous manipulation and a radical new translation (by director John Savournin and writing partner David Eaton) that blends acid cliches from The Godfather with the comic caricatures of, say, Bugsy Malone. Paula Sides (Hanna Glawari) in Scottish Opera's production of The Merry Widow | Mihaela Bodlovic The secret to Savournin and his team's success lies in the unrelenting self-belief of its delivery. A resounding flourish from the Scottish Opera Orchestra (lush, fiery and passionate under music director Stuart Stratford), accompanied by cinema-style credits, sets in motion a dizzying theatrical tsunami, an evening of hyperactive physicality, athletic characterisation and plenty of fine singing. Rarely has a Scottish Opera audience laughed so much, or so heartily. The cast buy into it entirely, not least the powerful frontline duo of Paula Sides, classy and compelling as wealthy widow Hanna, and Alex Otterburn, an ardently complex presence as Danilo. Henry Waddington's ruthlessness as Don Zeta, now a Mafia supremo, gains warmth through his calculated incompetence; Rhian Lois glistens as Valentina, his wayward wife. Alex Otterburn (Danilo) and Henry Waddington (Don Zeta) in Scottish Opera's production of The Merry Widow | Mihaela Bodlovic A menagerie of stereotypical hoodlums do their bidding, from Matthew Kellett's frenetic capo Nicky Negus to mobster duo Cascada (Christopher Nairne) and Briochi (Connor James Smith). William Morgan's lean tenor doesn't always pass muster as Rosillon, a mob-sponsored jazz singer. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Chorus are a spectacular riot, Kally Lloyd-Jones' choreography eye-catching, the sets by designer takis oozing colour, character and detailed opulence. At times, the dialogue can seem overlong, even repetitive, but sheer entertainment wins the day.
Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
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
Scotsman
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Scottish Opera: The Merry Widow, Glasgow review: 'a dizzying theatrical tsunami'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scottish Opera: The Merry Widow, Theatre Royal, Glasgow ★★★★ To appreciate this brazen new Scottish Opera production, nay re-envisioning, of Franz Lehár's 1905 operetta The Merry Widow, there's absolutely no place for preconceptions. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gone are the fin-de-siècle Parisian glamour, haughty socialites and syrupy comedic intrigues of high society, to be replaced by the Mafia world of 1950s New York and Sicily, with all its hard-edged hierarchies, callous manipulation and a radical new translation (by director John Savournin and writing partner David Eaton) that blends acid cliches from The Godfather with the comic caricatures of, say, Bugsy Malone. Paula Sides (Hanna Glawari) in Scottish Opera's production of The Merry Widow | Mihaela Bodlovic The secret to Savournin and his team's success lies in the unrelenting self-belief of its delivery. A resounding flourish from the Scottish Opera Orchestra (lush, fiery and passionate under music director Stuart Stratford), accompanied by cinema-style credits, sets in motion a dizzying theatrical tsunami, an evening of hyperactive physicality, athletic characterisation and plenty of fine singing. Rarely has a Scottish Opera audience laughed so much, or so heartily. The cast buy into it entirely, not least the powerful frontline duo of Paula Sides, classy and compelling as wealthy widow Hanna, and Alex Otterburn, an ardently complex presence as Danilo. Henry Waddington's ruthlessness as Don Zeta, now a Mafia supremo, gains warmth through his calculated incompetence; Rhian Lois glistens as Valentina, his wayward wife. Alex Otterburn (Danilo) and Henry Waddington (Don Zeta) in Scottish Opera's production of The Merry Widow | Mihaela Bodlovic A menagerie of stereotypical hoodlums do their bidding, from Matthew Kellett's frenetic capo Nicky Negus to mobster duo Cascada (Christopher Nairne) and Briochi (Connor James Smith). William Morgan's lean tenor doesn't always pass muster as Rosillon, a mob-sponsored jazz singer. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Chorus are a spectacular riot, Kally Lloyd-Jones' choreography eye-catching, the sets by designer takis oozing colour, character and detailed opulence. At times, the dialogue can seem overlong, even repetitive, but sheer entertainment wins the day.
Telegraph
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Merry Widow: Bada bing! Scottish Opera serves up a beautiful production with a dash of The Sopranos
In Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár's three-act operetta The Merry Widow, Baron Mirko Zeta of the fictional, cash-strapped Balkan state of Pontevedro attempts to manufacture a marriage between his right-hand man Danilo Danilovitch and the titular rich, Pontevedrian widow Hanna Glawari. His purpose is to keep Mrs Glawari's millions in Pontevedro. In this new co-production by Scottish Opera, D'Oyly Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park, the action is relocated to the world of the Italian-American mafia in mid-20th-century New York. The baron is reimagined as mafia boss Don Zeta, who is plotting to get his hands on the extremely valuable lemon plantation of Tennessee-born Hanna Glawari, the recently widowed wife of a boss in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. This new, English-language adaptation by John Savournin (book) and David Eaton (lyrics) begins in Don Zeta's palatial Manhattan apartment. There we find the mafia boss in good spirits. It's his 50th birthday party, many of his enemies appear to be 'sleeping with the fishes', while others have woken up to find a severed horse's head in their bed. These macabre mafia clichés are, however, conveyed with a light-hearted humour. Savournin and Eaton have created a clever and delightfully silly cross between a commedia dell'arte farce and an episode of The Sopranos. Most of the Don's men are trigger-happy numbskulls, and Camille de Rosillon (the operetta's amorous Frenchman) is recast as a Gallic singer whose American concerts and record contracts owe a very definite debt to his mafia connections. This inspired daftness is conveyed fabulously by a universally impressive cast. The ever excellent bass-baritone Henry Waddington is disarmingly jovial in the role of the greedy and ruthless Don Zeta. Remarkably – given the unarguable nastiness of the protagonists – the adaptation succeeds in achieving the operetta's ultimate ascent into romantic comedy. Soprano Paula Sides (who is, in fact, from Tennessee) plays Glawari with a winning combination of sassiness and glamour. Her gorgeous singing, in Act II, of the lovely aria Vilja creates a moment of improbable beauty in the midst of the prevailing buffoonery. Opposite her, Danilo – who is recast as the Don's consigliere, and sung by the fine baritone Alex Otterburn – makes for an unlikely yet convincing romantic hero. There is more spoken dialogue in the piece (especially in Act I) than you would usually expect in an opera. However, Lehár's bright, colourful score makes its presence felt increasingly, and the Scottish Opera's orchestra delivers it with the required combination of lightness and heft. Designer takis delivers three very distinct and brilliant sets (in Don Zeta's apartment, Glawari's Sicilian villa and Manhattan nightclub Maxim's). There is no interval between Acts II and III. What we get instead is a set change that is breathtakingly well executed. This bold adaptation makes for a delightful evening's opera. It is one that is bound to impress as it tours around Scotland before a summer run at Opera Holland Park in London.
