Hanna Glawari = Solveig Kringlebotn
Grev Danilo Danilovitsch = Kjell Magnus Sandve
Valencienne = Ina Kringlebotn
Camille de Rosillon = Marius Roth Christensen
Baron Zeta = Thor Inge Falch
Njegus = Torill Eriksen
Alfred Eschwé, conductor
Directors - Ronald Rørvik/Stuart Hopps/ Toralv Maurstad
Choreography - Stuart Hopps
Set design/ Costumes - John-Kristian Alsaker
Lightning design - Hans-Åke Sjöquist
Choir - Steffen Kammler
DIE LUSTIGE WITWE
Operetta in 3 acts by Franz Lehár
Libretto by Victor & Leon Stein
Premiere: 18/4
Days of performance: 19/4, 21/4, 22/4, 23/4, 24/4, 25/4, 26/4, 30/4, 2/5, 3/5, 5/5
Duration: app. 2 h 45 min
Sung in Norwegian
Conductor: Alfred Eschwé
Dancers
The Norwegian National Opera's Choir and Orchestra
Synopsis Die Lustige Witwe (The Metropolitan Opera)
Sung in Norwegian, OK, I am Norwegian, so it's OK. Dialogue in Norwegian, that's OK too, of course. And subtitles, great. But no subtitles when the dialogue is on. WHY ? And when the director decide that opera singers are going to speak naturally, not with opera voices and great diction, that's idiocy. Could not hear the dialogue well at all, and with no subtitles that mean a lot of information is lost. And Operetta usually have a lot more dialogue than your average opera. Stupid decision, annoying...
If the singing and the rest had been great then I would have forgiven it. Aunt and niece Kringlebotn in an operetta. I expected Aunt Solveig to be better than niece Ina. But Valencienne was better than Hanna Glawari. Kjell Magnus Sandve used to have a beautiful tenor voice but in the operetta his voice was not really there... Best acting and singing was Torill Eriksen as Njegus. The veteran mezzo as Hanna would have been wonderful. I think that maybe Hanna Glawari should be sung by a mezzo soprano...
The singers took a long time to warm up. Especially Solveig Kringlebotn and Kjell Magnus Sandve.
It is difficult to make an operetta work, especially in our modern time.
Weak.. Sad, really.
This page was last updated: June 20, 2022
