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The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Merry Widow review – come for the big tunes, stay for the birthday cement mixer
An enormous rococo sofa dominates the stage. Great artworks jostle for space on the walls – Picasso, Velázquez, a handful of impressionists, and a banner reads 'Happy birthday boss'. Guests pour in from a pinging elevator: a maelstrom of big skirts in Disney princess colours, high-rise hair, three-piece suits and pork pie hats. Out of the window: skyscrapers. In singer turned director John Savournin's latest production for Opera Holland Park – a collaboration with Scottish Opera and D'Oyly Carte Opera – Franz Lehár's hit operetta The Merry Widow switches fictional Pontevedro and Le Gai Paris for New York's mafia underworld and its Sicilian homeland. The plot's patriarch becomes a pinstripe Manhattan godfather, title character Hanna Glawari the widow of a Sicilian lemon-tree racketeer. In their energetic English version, Savournin and David Eaton have fun with Dolmio-level Italian (no less authentic than Lehár's original Balkan Neverland) and these mafiosi reach as often for the TV gangster phrase book – 'Bada bing, bada boom', 'schmuck', 'capeesh?' – as for their guns. Dialogue is delivered in 90% faux mafioso ('family comes foist, bowss!'), 10% operatic RP. In the mostly excellent singing those proportions were reversed. And where the spoken passages were largely shrieked or shouted, the balance in the sung numbers swung in favour of the orchestra: most of the action played behind the pit thus vastly increasing the demands on singers already working in tent-acoustics. So much high-camp melodrama may leave some yearning for a calmer take on Lehár's classic. But, for those with a higher tolerance for hyperactive kitsch and national stereotyping after Lehár's own model, this mid-century Merry Widow is enormously enjoyable. Come for the big tunes, stay for the straight-legged 'Russian' folk dance performed unsmiling in dark glasses, the stage hands in white tie, lemon trees on wheels and the 'birthday cement mixer' (don't ask). For Acts 2 and 3, takis's streamlined set spins to take us from a cypress-equipped villa to the crimson interior of Maxim's – now a 'respectable performance bar' in New York. Bass-baritone Henry Waddington is ideally cast as 'Don' Zeta and evidently had a ball, his comic timing impeccable; Rhian Lois was a vivacious stage presence as his wife, Valentina. Matthew Kellett's Little Italy accent was the best of the bunch, while Christopher Nairne and Connor James Smith made one winning double act as warring Italians, Amy J Payne and Matthew Siveter as another, the ferocious 'Russian' Kromows. But this is also a piece with a big heart. Along with the warm, stylish playing from the orchestra of Scottish Opera under Stuart Stratford, it was the suavity and occasional tenderness of Alex Otterburn's Danilo and Paula Sides's Hanna that made this performance more than the sum of its gags. At Opera Holland Park, London, until 28 June.
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.
