Lehár’s enchanting operetta, “The Merry Widow”, performed in English, releases at Cinema Nouveau on 21 February 2015 for limited screenings
In The Merry Widow, the great Renée Fleming stars as the beguiling femme fatale, Hanna Glawari, who captivates all of Paris. In this new English production of the comic operetta, a wealthy widow’s countrymen launch a romantic plot to keep her—and her tax dollars—within their borders.
Lehár’s enchanting operetta is presented in an exciting new staging by Broadway virtuoso director and choreographer, and four-time Tony Award winner, Susan Stroman (The Producers, Oklahoma!, Contact). Stroman makes her Met debut with this production.
This next opera in the current Met: Live in HD series screened in South Africa, releases on Saturday, 21 February for a limited season till 05 March, at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor cinemas countrywide. The 17 January matinee performance was filmed for transmission worldwide as part of the Met’s Live in HD series, which now reaches more than 1 900 movie theatres in 70 countries around the world. Bookings are now open. Visit www.cinemanouveau.co.za for more details.
Stroman and her design team of Julian Crouch (Satyagraha, The Enchanted Island) and costume designer William Ivey Long (Cinderella, Grey Gardens, Hairspray) have created an art-nouveau setting that climaxes with singing and dancing at the legendary Parisian restaurant, Maxim’s. Nathan Gunn co-stars as Danilo and Broadway star Kelli O’Hara makes her operatic debut at The Met as Valencienne. The cast also includes Alek Shrader as Camille and Thomas Allen as Baron Zeta.
Sir Andrew Davis is the conductor of this lively opera, with highlights of the score including the familiar ‘Vilja Song’ for the title character, and a climactic song-and-dance set piece featuring a chorus line of grisettes at Maxim’s.
Renée Fleming adds a new role to her extensive repertory with this, her first-ever performance of Hanna Glawari, the title role in Lehár’s The Merry Widow. Four-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman makes her Met debut as director and choreographer of a new production of the comic operetta, in which a wealthy widow’s countrymen launch a romantic plot to keep her—and her tax dollars—within their borders.
Hanna Glawari is Renée Fleming’s 22nd role at the Met, where she has given more than 230 performances in a wide-ranging repertory. Her most recent appearances with the company have been as the title characters in Dvořák’s Rusalka, Handel’sRodelinda, Rossini’s Armida, and Massenet’s Thais; Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello; and two Richard Strauss roles, the Countess inCapriccio and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. In 2010, she sang excerpts from the operetta in concert at the Dresden Semperoper.
Susan Stroman is the director and choreographer of nine Broadway musicals, most recently Bullets Over Broadway, Big Fish, The Scottsboro Boys, Young Frankenstein, and The Frogs. She is the winner of four Tony Awards, including one each as director and choreographer for her work on the 2001 hit The Producers, and has been nominated an additional 12 times, for directing or choreographing a variety of productions including The Music Man, Steel Pier, Show Boat, Contact, and Crazy For You.
Nathan Gunn’s Met repertory of 15 roles includes Clyde Griffiths in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy, the title role in Britten’s Billy Budd, Schaunard in Puccini’s La Bohème, Raimbaud in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Mercutio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, and Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, a role he has performed more than 30 times with the company.
Kelli O’Hara has appeared in nine Broadway musicals, earning Tony nominations for her last five starring roles: Francesca in The Bridges of Madison County, Billie Bendix in Nice Work If You Can Get It, Nellie Forbush in South Pacific, Babe Williams in The Pajama Game, and Clara Johnson in The Light in the Piazza. She recently played Mrs. Darling in NBC’s live broadcast of Peter Pan,and later this season will star as Anna Leonowens in a Lincoln Center Theater revival of The King and I.
Sir Andrew Davis conducted the Met premiere of The Merry Widow in 2000. He made his Met debut in 1981 leading Richard Strauss’s Salome and has conducted a total of ten operas with the company, including Don Giovanni; Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, which he also conducts at the Met this season; and both the Met premiere and 2011 revival ofCapriccio. Davis is the Music Director at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
The Merry Widow features a new English translation by Jeremy Sams, who devised and wrote The Enchanted Island for his Met debut in 2011 and returned last season as lyricist and director for a new production of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. The set designer is Julian Crouch, whose previous Met credits include The Enchanted Island, Philip Glass’s Satyagraha, John Adams’sDoctor Atomic, and the Met’s 125th Anniversary Gala. Six-time Tony Award winner William Ivey Long makes his Met debut as costume designer; his many notable credits include Nine, Guys and Dolls, Smokey Joe’s Café, Chicago, Cabaret, Contact, The Producers, Hairspray, Grey Gardens, Cinderella, and Bullets Over Broadway. Paule Constable’s previous lighting designs for the Met include Satyagraha, Don Giovanni, Anna Bolena, and this season’s new production of Le Nozze di Figaro.
Each of The Met: Live in HD operas is a glorious production that will be screened exclusively at Cinema Nouveau and select Ster-Kinekor theatres countrywide, including: Gateway Nouveau, Durban; V&A Waterfront Nouveau and Ster-Kinekor Blue Route in Cape Town; Ster-Kinekor Garden Route in George; Rosebank Nouveau and Ster-Kinekor Bedford View in Johannesburg; and at Brooklyn Nouveau, Pretoria.
The Merry Widow releases on Saturday, 21 February 2015, for a limited season. The running time of this production is approximately 2hrs 57mins, and includes one intermission.
For booking information on The Met: Live in HD season, visit www.cinemanouveau.co.za or sterkinekor.mobi, You can also download the Ster-Kinekor App on any Nokia, Samsung Android, iPhone or Blackberry smart phone for updates, news and to make bookings. Follow us on Twitter @nouveaubuzz and on Facebook at Cinema Nouveau. For queries, call Ticketline on 0861 Movies (668 437).
View a preview of The Merry Widow here: http://www.metopera.org/video/2014-15/the-merry-widow/watch/the-merry-widow-201415-new-production/3193161336001#play?src=1415hdmer
Hi-res images can be downloaded at: www.skpictures.co.za
The Met: Live in HD, the Met’s award-winning series of live transmissions to movie theaters around the world, has expanded its worldwide distribution to more than 2 000 theatres in 70 countries this season, the largest global audience the initiative has ever reached. The series has sold more than 17 million tickets since its inception in 2006. Their release onto the big screen affords South African lovers of opera the unique opportunity to become part of the ‘live’ audience of these breathtaking performances.
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