The Merry Widow (Arkiv version)

Franz Lehár’s delightful operetta The Merry Widow has been happily, tunefully sung and danced by many generations of performers since it was written by the famed Hungarian composer in 1905. Our Merry Widow, Patrice Munsel, is no newcomer to the piquant part. She and her Prince Danilo, Bob Wright, have waltzed to Lehár’s music in Los Angeles and San Francisco for the Civic Light Opera Associations of the coast cities. The Merry Widow brings its perpetual enchantment to New York’s fine new theater, the Music Theater of Lincoln Center.

The Merry Widow is the story of Sonia of Marsovia (Patrice Munsel), lovely and seductive widow of the fabulously rich Sidor Sedoya. Since most of the wealth Sonia inherited from her late husband consists of mortgages on the Marsovian King’s palace and the Queen’s jewels, it is vital to Marsovia’s future that Sonia remarry a Marsovian, not one of the many Frenchmen who are pursuing her. Bungling Baron Popoff (Mischa Auer), Marsovia’s ambassador to France, attempts to make a match between Sonia and Prince Danilo (Bob Wright), nephew of the King of Marsovia. After a merry and melodious series of incidents (the Prince is jealous of her French suitors; she, in turn, resents his dallyings with the girls at Maxim’s; there is a great deal of confusion over the ownership of a fan), true love and patriotism prevail. Marsovia is saved, and in the best “Once-upon-a-time” tradition, they all “live happily ever after.”