Opera Hong Kong is set to bring a treat to the city’s classical music scene this summer with two performances of Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár’s beloved operetta, The Merry Widow, at City Hall on August 15 and 16.
For those intimidated by or unfamiliar with the art form, an operetta offers an inviting first step: short, humorous and more conversational in music and story than capital-O opera.
Based on an 1861 French comic play, L’attaché d’ambassade, by Henri Meilhac, The Merry Widow has earned a reputation for being as approachable as it is melodically rich.
Premiering in Vienna in 1905, it tells the story of the recently widowed Hanna Glawari, in the fictional nation of Pontevedro, who has recently inherited a vast fortune from her late husband.
With the country’s finances in peril, the local nobles cook up a clever plan: to marry Hanna off to a fellow Pontevedrian, so her late husband’s millions stay within their borders, setting the stage for the ensuing shenanigans.
Opera Hong Kong has pulled together an all-local cast of young singers from within its own ranks for the performance. Leading the show are sopranos Candice Chung Ka-yan and Rianne Lau Cheuk-ying, sharing the role of Hanna, with tenors Henry Ngan Ka-lok and Lam Kwok Ho as her would-be suitor, Count Danilo, and baritone Albert Lim Chun as the scheming Baron Zeta.
Conductor Michael Koehler and opera director Tang Xinxin, both respected names on the international stage, round out the creative team.
