The Merry Widow (ballet)

The Merry Widow (ballet)


The Merry Widow
Choreographer Ronald Hynd
Music Franz Lehár (adapted by John Lanchbery and Alan Abbott
Based on The Merry Widow operetta
Premiere 13 November 1975 – Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Australia
Original ballet company The Australian Ballet
Characters Baron Mirko Zeta
(Pontevedrian Ambassador)
Valencienne
(Baron Zeta's wife)
Count Danilo Danilovitsch
(Pontevedrian Diplomat)
Hanna Glawari
(The Widow)
Camille de Rosillon
(French Attaché)
Njegus
(Embassy Secretary)
Kromow
(Embassy Official)
Pritschitsch
(Embassy Official)
Setting Paris
Created for The Australian Ballet
Genre Neoclassical ballet
Type classical ballet

The Merry Widow ballet is an adaptation of Franz Lehár's romantic operetta The Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe).

John Lanchbery and Alan Abbott adapted the score of the operetta for ballet and retained the style of Lehár's orchestration. The arrangement includes the well-known tunes of the operetta - Vilja's Song Ich bin eine anstandige Frau and the Weibermarsch. This musical arrangement has been used for two ballets: the first was choreographed by Ronald Hynd for The Australian Ballet in 1975, while the second was choreographed by Veronica Paeper for CAPAB (since renamed the Cape Town City Ballet Company) in 1988.

Read more about The Merry Widow (ballet):  Ballet Choreographed By Ronald Hynd, Ballet Choreographed By Veronica Paeper, Ballet Rôles, Television Broadcast, Ballet Music

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