Get ready for some serious belly laughs at this Dubai Opera show

Written by:
What's On
6th February 2019

When was it first performed?

The premiere took place at the Theater an der Wien on 30 December 1905, and has been a crowd-pleaser ever since. It went on to tour Austria before travelling to Hamburg, Berlin and Budapest, becoming an immediate international hit. More than a hundred years later, the operetta continues to play to packed houses all over the world.

What’s the story?

In a nutshell, Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow follows the attempts of Baron Zeta, the ambassador of fictional Balkan principality, Pontevedro, in Paris, to secure a husband of the same nationality for the extremely wealthy and newly widowed Pontevedrian, Hanna Glawari. Were she to take a French husband, the transfer of her fortune away from the Balkan principality would lead it to collapse. What follows is a hilarious tale of illicit affairs, mistaken identities, misread intentions and crossed messages.

What can we expect?

The Merry Widow is not a work to be taken seriously. Irreverent and glamorous, the operetta is one party after another, full of music, dancing and fun. The production is sung in German, with English and Arabic subtitles.

And the cast?

Conducted by László Makláry, the Director of the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre, the operetta is set in the vibrant, artistic city of Paris in the early 20th century. The cast includes Mónika Fischl, a soprano as the female lead, and Attila Bardóczy, the male counterpart.