Metropolitan Opera Summer Encores - Franz Lehár: The Merry Widow

Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman, whose many credits include the Tony Award-winning musicals Crazy For You, Contact, and The Producers, makes her Met debut with a lavish new staging of Lehár’s effervescent operetta The Merry Widow, performed in English in a new translation by Jeremy Sams. Lehár’s best-known composition has been an audience favorite since its 1905 premiere and features a great deal of well-known music, including “Vilja,” “You’ll Find Me At Maxim’s,” and “The Merry Widow Waltz.”  Renée Fleming will add a new character to her wide-ranging Met repertory of 22 roles as Hanna, the widowed Parisian millionairess. Andrew Davis will conduct a cast that also includes Nathan Gunn as Hanna’s lover Danilo; Alek Shrader as the young nobleman Camille de Rosillon; Thomas Allen as the scheming Baron Zeta; and Broadway soprano Kelli O’Hara in her Met debut as the Baron’s coquettish wife Valencienne.

Director: Susan Stroman

Conductor: Sir Andrews Davis

VICOMTE CASCADA - Jeff Mattsey
BARON MIRKO ZETA - Sir Thomas Allen
VALENCIENNE - Kelli O’Hara
SYLVIANE - Emalie Savoy
OLGA - Wallis Giunta
PRASKOWIA - Margaret Lattimore
CAMILLE DE ROSILLON - Alek Shrader
RAOUL DE ST. BRIOCHE - Alexander Lewis
KROMOW - Daniel Mobbs
PRITSCHITSCH - Gary Simpson
BOGDANOVITCH - Mark Schowalter
NJEGUS - Carson Elrod
HANNA GLAWARI - Renée Fleming
COUNT DANILO DANILOVITCH - Nathan Gunn
GRISETTES - Synthia Link, Alison Mixon, Emily Pynenburg, Leah Hofmann, Jenny Laroche, Catherine Hamilton