The Merry Widow

Stepping away from their usual Gilbert and Sullivan fare, this year Stewartby Operatic ventured into the twentieth century with Austro Hungarian composer Franz Lehar’s 1905 Operetta The Merry Widow, based on an 1861 comedy, The Embassy Attache by Henri Meilhac. Directed by SAODS stalwart, Gordon Hodges this year they also had a new Musical Director, Liz Bottone. And what a delightful evening’s entertainment it turned out to be.

The plot is rather complicated as their programme amply demonstrates. It is in three acts, and each act has half a page explaining the plot. So, to sum up in a few sentences it has three basic plots. Firstly, Ambassador Baron Zeta plots for one of his subjects to marry the wealthy widow Hanna to keep her money in the country and therefore stopping the country becoming bankrupt, – not knowing Hannah and Danilo were sweethearts when they were younger.  The second plot is the sweet story of Hanna and Danilo rekindling their romance from their youth.  The third plot concerns Zeta’s wife Valencienne who is flirting with Frenchman Camile de Rosillon and he has written on her fan the words ‘I Love You’ as a declaration to her. A fan she subsequently mislays which when found leads to all sorts of incorrect assumptions.

The set by Tim Sell and Jessica Hallett and under the management of David Simpson had a very prestigious look for each of the three acts. The opening act was the Ball at the Pontevedrian Embassy in Paris to which we were cordially welcomed by the ‘Embassy staff’ on arrival and shown to our seats. Nice touch. The stage was a blue background dressed like a ballroom with a false door to the rear and ornately framed pictures neatly hung. One amusing moment when the action started was a picture in the style of the ones already hung of President Trump which was carried aloft from one side of the stage to the other, to much amusement from the audience. Didn’t get the relevance but it was extremely funny.  There was also the addition of a pyramid of Ferrero Rocher – so we knew The Ambassador was really spoiling us! Act two was a garden Party in Hanna’s villa, again with a blue flats background with a balustrade in front of it and a small pavilion stage left which was pivotal to the action. The third Act was very lush red velvet drapes and sign hanging down depicting the club Maxim’s creating a boudoir effect.

Costumes supplied by Harlequin Costume Hire and sourced by Juliet Jones really did take you back to the early twentieth century and upper crust higher echelons of society with some very late Victorian style dresses for the ladies and evening suits for the men with red and blue sashes for the top embassy officials.  A change to summer wear for the garden party was equally impressive. The choice of wigs (uncredited) set the costumes off splendidly. It was all very pleasing to the eye, and you were very quickly drawn into the set and the action.

To top it off lighting supplied by Ben Whittle and Mike Cocke highlighted the set and costumes perfectly.

At this point in any other review, I would normally be mentioning sound and the sound engineers, but what I’ve always loved about Stewartby Operatic is that they have never needed any amplification. They are a group who know how to project in the old-fashioned way and clarity of voice has never been an issue. Good on them and long may it continue. That doesn’t mean I could distinguish every word of every song in the libretto, I couldn’t, but Operetta is a specialist art form and the music and acting are powerful enough to be able to follow the story so it absolutely doesn’t detract in any way for me and having the band in front of the stage, separating the actors from the audience  isn’t ideal, but not a lot that can or should be done to change that.

The band under the direction of Liz Bottone were on top form and very impressive with   Alex Collins (Violin), Hannah Perry (Viola), Jane Wheeler (Cello), Tine Marchbank (Double Bass), Nicki Riding (Flute), Emma Eames (Clarinet/Saxophone), Peter Halliday (Trumpet) and Margaret Johnson (Piano). Additionally Ben Bottone was due to be on Trumpet on Saturday only.

The quality of singing voices in this society is second to none and with some nice characterisations led to a very enjoyable show. Jessica Hallett was a powerful lead as Hanna Glawari which she immediately demonstrated with the opening number, Vilia in Act 2. Graham Breeze had a excellent comedic touch as a drunk and womaniser, Danilo Danilovitsch and a fabulous voice as demonstrated in Maxim’s and especially in The Cavalier with Hanna (Jessica).  I thought Gordon Hodges as Camille de Rosillon personified the Edwardian man perfectly with his general demeanour and facial expressions. And the wonderful flirtation with Paula Fraser as Valencienne was highly amusing. Colin Jones played the rather naive cuckolded Baron Zeta with a fabulous innocence. The divorce, (un)divorce scene was particularly amusing. And probably best of all in terms of fun was Andrew Hodges as the commanding servant, Njegus. A man always taking notes and even wandering into the audience to do so during the intervals. Loved the way he started each act, giving the audience a long stare before clapping the note book raised above his head.

Well done also to Chris Hodges (St Brioche), Peter Davis (Casada), Liz Walsh (Sylviane), Linda Bowen (Praskowia), Carol Urwin (Olga), Mike Cocke (Bogdanovitch) and Steve Bartlett (Kromov). And not to forget the wonderfully named (and dressed) girls at Maxims, The Grisettes - Lolo, Dodo, Jou-Jou, Frou-Frou, Clo-Clo and Margot played by Carol Urwin, Evie Watts, Linda Bowen, Sandra Buck, Liz Walsh, Susanne Harris respectively.

So congratulations to Gordon Hodges, his cast and crew. That was definitely one of SAODS’ most enjoyable production we have seen. Great fun!

 

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