I must start off this review saying that Operetta is not my favourite flavour of musical theatre. I've spent years avoiding Gilbert & Sullivan as much as I can, and anything else that comes from that period of pre World War I entertainment. However, I was lucky enough to be Musical Director for a large-scale production of Lehár's The Merry Widow some 10 years ago, and so it was with less trepidation that I settled down to Masterworks Broadways digital re-issue of the 1964 Revival Cast. And, like my experience with putting the show on stage, I enjoyed the experience much more than I expected.

Briefly, The Merry Widow is the story of Sonia of Marsovia (here played by Patrice Munsel), the seductive widow of Sidor Sedaya. Since most of her inherited wealth from her husband consists of mortgages on the Marsovian's palace and jewels, it's vital to Marsovia's future that Sonia re-marry a Marsovian, not one of the many Frenchmen who are pursuing her. There are attempts made to match her with Prince Danilo (Bob Wright) and chaos ensues.

The Merry Widow, as with many such works of the period, has undergone many variations and re-writes. There are several versions available for recording and production, and from what I can tell, it was the Chappell version that the Lincoln Center used for this revival.

With a running time of 51 minutes, this is by no means a complete recording of Lehar's three-act Operetta, but contains all of the songs that you would expect to find. It also includes the 'Overture', which wasn't part of the original version of the show, and wasn't added until the 1940s.

The recording is conducted by Franz Allers, who was no stranger to the Broadway musical, having picked up the Tony award some years earlier, as musical director for My Fair Lady. This production of The Merry Widow was to start Allers's long association with Lincoln Center, and many future productions such as Kismet and Showboat were also recorded and issued on RCA Victor, now part of Masterworks Broadway.

Munsel and Wright are no strangers to these roles, having played them previously in Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and it shows. There is a sense of belonging on this recording, one that is not frequently seen on revival recordings, which tend to have a lesser gestation period than other stage recordings, and can sometimes appear little more than studio recreations.

Their renditions of 'Romance' and 'Vilia' are as near perfection as you will get, and 'Riding on a Carousel' has just the right injection of life. The chorus too are excellent, and numbers which don't always come across too well on recordings such as 'Women' are, again, first rate.

One little niggle I had was that in some of the more 'fuller' sounding moments, such as the end of 'Romance', the sound was not as clear as I would have liked, and was almost verging on distortion. I'm putting that down to the review copy I had on MP3, and trust it will be better on the ArkivMusic CD version. All in all, if you want an introduction to The Merry Widow, then this is a safe bet.

8

Ian Gude