51st Season 2006–2007 |
The Merry Widow Music by Franz Lehár Libretto by Viktor Léon and Leo Stein Based on the play L’Attaché d’ambassade by Henri Meilhac |
Conductor: Jindong Cai, Director: Yefim
Maizel
Set Design: Jean-François Revon, Costume Design: Richard
W. Battle, Lighting
Design: Chad Bonaker
Act I: The Pontevedrian Embassy in Paris
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Baron Mirko Zeta (Ross Halper) welcomes everyone to the annual ball celebrating the birthday of the Grand Duke of Pontevedro. |
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Count Camille de Rosillon (Jonathan Smucker) and Baron Zeta’s wife Valencienne (Amy Bouchard) debate continuing their affair. |
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Hanna Glawari (Courtney Ross), the widow of the Pontevedrian court banker, arrives to general acclaim. Though unused to Parisian ways, Hanna suspects that the flattery and charming words are truly meant for her inheirited fortune. |
Act II: Hanna’s Estate in Montmartre
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Hanna Glawari (Courtney Ross) welcomes her guests to a Pontevedrian garden party at her estate in Montmartre. |
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Hanna (Courtney Ross) entertains her guests with an old ballad about an alluring Pontevedrian forest sprite—the Vilia. |
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Sylviane (Kirsten Allegri), Praskowia (Elizabeth Finkler), Bogdanowitsch (Taber Dullea), and Pritschitsch (Stephen J. Howes) listen to Hanna sing. |
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Count Camille de Rosillon (Adam Flowers) and Valencienne (Elisabeth Russ) promise one last kiss and then good-bye. |
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“Do you imagine I am a cherry orchard?” Hanna (Courtney Ross) asks Count Danilo (Eugene Chan). “Is that why you act like a scarecrow and frighten away all the men?” |
Act III: Maxim’s
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Njegus (Christopher Hawks) introduces the grisettes of Maxim’s: Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Clo-Clo, Frou-Frou, Margot. |
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Njegus (Christopher Hawks) waves the fan upon which Camille has written a love note to Valencienne. |
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After seeing his wife’s handwriting on the fan, Baron Zeta (Ross Halper) tells Valencienne (Elisabeth Russ) she is divorced, and then proposes to Hanna (Robin Fisher). |
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Unlike the other suitors, Count Danilo (Eugene Chan) is delighted when Hanna (Courtney Ross) explains that, according to Codicil No. 5 of her late husband’s will, she will lose the whole of her fortune when she remarries. |
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Valencienne (Amy Bouchard) asks her husband (Ross Halper) to read what she has written on the fan, “I am a faithful wife.” “Excuse me,” he apologizes, “I never knew!” |
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Danilo (Eugene Chan) and Hanna (Courtney Ross) are finally free to declare their love for each other. |
