The Reviews are In!

CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEW
Refreshing `Merry Widow' is a delight

By John von Rhein
Tribune music critic
August 22, 2005

"The Merry Widow" will turn 100 later this year, but you would never guess as much from the frisky charm the old girl continues to exude. Many listeners consider Franz Lehar's tuneful operetta the greatest Viennese confection of its kind. You won't get any argument from me after seeing Light Opera Works' engaging new production, which settled into a weeklong run Saturday in Evanston's Cahn Auditorium.

The show is directed and choreographed with a light touch -- neither too jokey nor too sentimental -- by Rudy Hogenmiller, in his first assignment with the company since taking over as artistic director earlier this year. He has assembled a strong cast that sings and kicks up its collective heels with equal pizazz and an orchestra under the stylish conductor Pasquale Laurino that allows Lehar's waltzes, can-cans and wistful ballads to work their insidious magic on the ear.

The plot revolves around the efforts of the diplomats and emigres of Pontevedro, a fictional Balkan state, to marry off Hanna Glawari, a filthy-rich widow, to a fellow countryman so the nation can avert bankruptcy. Baron Zeta, the ambassador to Paris, has targeted Count Danilo, a playboy who was an old flame of Hanna's. Assigned to keep her from marrying a Frenchman, Danilo comes to realize, as Hanna always has known, that he loves her. Only at the end does she learn whether Danilo loves her for her money or herself.

The eponymous role of Hanna often is assigned to singers past their shelf lives vocally. So, it was wonderful to have the role sung by a fresh-voiced and attractive young soprano, Stacey Tappan.

One of the star recent graduates of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, Tappan sang divinely, looked glamorous in a succession of elegant gowns and, like most of the cast, delivered her spoken lines with conversational ease. She caught just the right tone of rapturous sadness in Hanna's "Vilja" Song, capped off with a lovely diminuendo on the high note.

She and Larry Adams, the dashing Danilo, sent sparks flying each time their characters met. Adams, an accomplished area music-theater performer who was making his company debut, proved as smooth on his dancing feet as he was pouring out his virile baritone.

The perky, bright-voiced soprano Sharon Quattrin as Valencienne and the boyishly ardent tenor Colm Fitzmaurice as Camille were good as the other romantic duo, although Fitzmaurice's voice sounded rather tight. Roger Mueller struck the proper note of fatuous pomposity as the almost-cuckold, Baron Zeta. The diminutive Geoffrey Plitt was cute as a button in the clerk Njegus' vaudeville-style set-piece, and Jeff R. Jones and Todd R. Wedge made an amusing pair of scoundrels vying for Hanna's hand.

A witty new translation by Chicagoans Gregg Opelka and Jack Helbig steered clear, for the most part, of the ham-handedness to which many versions succumb. There was, however, one labored touch involving a lady's fan on which Camille had written "I love you" to Valencienne. The line "Ah, English, the language of love!" was funny the first time we heard it but became just annoying when it was later repeated, over and over, by various cast members."The Merry Widow" repeats at 2 p.m. Wednesday and Sunday, and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Phone 847-869-6300.-

---------jvonrhein@tribune.com
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