FULL THE MERRY WIDOW BALLET Melbourne 1993
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Information on the Performance
- Work Title: The Merry Widow or Die Lustige Witwe
- Composer: Lehar Franz
- Libretto: Robert Helpmann Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: State Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, Australia
- Recorded: 1993
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: N/A
- Conductor: Noel Smith
- Orchestra: State Orchestra of Victoria
- Ballet: The Australian Ballet
- Choreographer: Ronald Hynd
- Stage Director: Robert Helpmann
- Stage Designer: Desmond Heely
- Costume Designer:
- Lighting Designer: William Akers
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
- Date Published: 1993
- Format: DVD
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: AMAZON
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The Merry Widow ballet is a 1975 adaptation of Franz Lehár’s 1905 romantic operetta The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe).
John Lanchbery and Alan Abbott adapted the score of the operetta for ballet and retained the style of Lehár’s orchestration. The arrangement includes the well-known tunes of the operetta: Vilja’s song Ich bin eine anständige Frau and the Weibermarsch. This musical arrangement has been used for two ballets: the first was choreographed by Ronald Hynd for The Australian Ballet in 1975, while the second was choreographed by Veronica Paeper for CAPAB (since renamed the Cape Town City Ballet Company) in 1988.
Ballet choreographed by Ronald Hynd
The ballet was created for The Australian Ballet by Sir Robert Helpmann (a principal dancer and choreographer), who obtained permission from the heirs of the composer and the librettists (Viktor Léon and Leo Stein), by special arrangement with Glocken Verlag Ltd. of London. The scenario and staging were designed by Helpmann, with the choreography by Ronald Hynd. The orchestration was by John Lanchbery (who was then the musical director of The Australian Ballet) and his colleague Alan Abbott. The designer was Desmond Heeley.
The ballet had its world premiere on 13 November 1975 at the Palais Theatre in Melbourne, with Marilyn Rowe (Hanna), John Meehan (Danilo), Lucette Aldous (Valencienne), Kelvin Coe (Camille), Colin Peasley (Baron Mirko Zeta) and Ray Powell (Njegus). The performance was conducted by John Lanchbery. It premiered in Sydney at the Regent Theatre.
In 1976, Dame Margot Fonteyn performed the rôle of Hanna as a guest dancer at The Australian Ballet and continued with the rôle, alternating with Marilyn Fay Jones when the company took their production to England.
Like the operetta, the ballet has also become very popular and has been adopted into the repertoires of many companies, including the National Ballet of Canada, the Royal Danish Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, the Houston Ballet, the Vienna State Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Quoted from WIkipedia