iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
The application can be completed through the website, mobile application, customer happiness centre or typing centre
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Geneva’s “Merry Widow” operetta highlights humour
GENEVA - A new production in Geneva of “The Merry Widow” uses razor-sharp timing to bring out the humour, in a production so fresh it seems Franz Lehar’s operetta was written only yesterday.
Lehar’s masterpiece premiered in 1905 in Vienna, in the twilight years of Emperor Franz Josef’s Austro-Hungarian empire, and rapidly became a world hit.
The tale of a small, peripheral European country tottering on the edge of bankruptcy, diplomatic leaks, and a political figure who prefers starlets and champagne to the serious business of statecraft has an undeniably contemporary feel.
In Geneva’s new production that opened on Dec. 14, German director Christoph Foy develops the operetta’s knockabout farce routines with discipline to highlight a comic plot of marital infidelity and love triumphing over pride.
But by casting principals better known for serious roles, such as veteran Belgian bass-baritone Jose Van Dam as the hapless ambassador Baron Zeta, he also brings out the poetry of a classic tale of the war of the sexes.
With its timeless melodies, energetic dance routines and blend of humour and drama, The Merry Widow points the way to the American musical comedies of the 20th century while building on the operettas of Jacques Offenbach and Johann Strauss.
The story takes place at the embassy in Paris of the Grand Duchy of Pontevedro, a poverty-stricken Balkan principality which might just be based on Montenegro, and at the nearby house of a rich, young Pontevedrian widow.
The plot involves an attempt by the ambassador to persuade widow Hanna Glawari, who has been left a fortune by her late banker husband, to marry a Pontevedrian to prevent her capital leaving the country.
Hanna has her eye on a former sweetheart, the playboy diplomat Count Danilo, but he seems not to be interested.
Foy updates the setting to the 1950s or 1960s, and the sets recall a hotel of the time in Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia.
“I wanted to create an indeterminate post-war period when those communist countries thought they could take on the world,” he told Reuters.
The operetta is performed in a mixture of German, French and English — and even a little Serbian.
The production pokes fun at the operetta’s Ruritanian-style East European folklore, full of national dress and folk-dancing.
But Lehar’s pastiche Pontevedrian folksong “Vilja” has entered the repertoire of the world’s great songs.
More news from
During an interview with
This initiative aims to minimise instances of illegal parking
Smart technologies provide precise recommendations, allowing construction teams to save time and effort
Three years after Yang Qian and Yang Haoran won the gold in Tokyo, compatriots Huang and Sheng made sure China retained it
Through this initiative, affected customers won't have to pay two instalments in one month
The astronauts are seen training and carrying an 'Olympic torch'
The Spaniard's impressive round puts him in the perfect position to clinch his first LIV title, as his team, Legion XIII lead the competition