Merry Widow, The, is one of the most popular and influential operettas in the history of musical theater. The Merry Widow opened in Vienna, Austria, on Dec. 30, 1905. It soon became an international sensation. The Hungarian composer Franz Lehár wrote the music. Austrians Victor Léon and Leo Stein wrote the libretto (text). They based the operetta on The Embassy Attaché (1861), a play by the French writer Henri Meilhac. The operetta’s title in German is Die Lustige Witwe.
The success of The Merry Widow revived the Viennese operetta as the major form of musical theater in the early 1900’s. The show’s beautiful songs and strong plot elevated the operetta above the older, heavier style. Lehár’s hit songs included “The Merry Widow Waltz,” “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Maxim’s,” and “Vilia.”
The Merry Widow tells the story of a romance between Hanna Glawari, a wealthy young widow, and the playboy Count Danilo Danilowitsch, both from the fictional country of Pontevedro. The story is set Paris, where Hanna is visiting. Baron Mirko Zeta desperately seeks a Pontevedrian husband for the widow so that her money will remain in that country. Hanna and Danilo had a romantic relationship in the past. After many complications, they recognize that they still love each other, and they agree to marry.
An English-language production of The Merry Widow opened in the United States on Oct. 21, 1907, and became an immediate hit. “The Merry Widow Waltz” stimulated a new taste for waltz dancing in the country. The popularity of The Merry Widow even influenced fashions, especially the hat style worn by Hanna Glawari. A “Merry Widow hat” was wide-brimmed and decorated with numerous feathers. The operetta was filmed several times, notably in a 1934 American version directed by the German-born filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch.
See also Lehár, Franz; Operetta.
