April 18, 2007: Die Lustige Witwe in Oslo

2007-04-18 Die Lustige Witwe (F. Lehàr), Den Norske Opera
Hanna Glawari = Solveig Kringlebotn
Grev Danilo Danilovitsch = Kjell Magnus Sandve
Valencienne = Ina Kringlebotn
Camille de Rosillon = Marius Roth Christensen
Baron Zeta = Thor Inge Falch
Njegus = Torill Eriksen

Alfred Eschwé, conductor



DIE LUSTIGE WITWE
Operetta in 3 acts by Franz Lehár
Libretto by Victor & Leon Stein


Premiere: 18/4
Days of performance: 19/4, 21/4, 22/4, 23/4, 24/4, 25/4, 26/4, 30/4, 2/5, 3/5, 5/5
Duration: app. 2 h 45 min
Sung in Norwegian

Conductor: Alfred Eschwé
Directors: Ronald Rørvik/Stuart Hopps/ Toralv Maurstad
Choreography : Stuart Hopps
Set design/ Costumes: John-Kristian Alsaker
Lightning design: Hans-Åke Sjöquist
Choir: Steffen Kammler

Dancers
The Norwegian National Opera's Choir and Orchestra





Sung in Norwegian, OK, I am Norwegian, so it's OK. Dialogue in Norwegian, that's OK too, of course. And subtitles, great. But no subtitles when the dialogue is on. WHY ? And when the director decide that opera singers are going to speak naturally, not with opera voices and great diction, that's idiocy. Could not hear the dialogue well at all, and with no subtitles that mean a lot of information is lost. And Operetta usually have a lot more dialogue than your average opera. Stupid decision, annoying...

If the singing and the rest had been great then I would have forgiven it. Aunt and niece Kringlebotn in an operetta. I expected Aunt Solveig to be better than niece Ina. But Valencienne was better than Hanna Glawari. Kjell Magnus Sandve used to have a beautiful tenor voice but in the operetta his voice was not really there... Best acting and singing was Torill Eriksen as Njegus. The veteran mezzo as Hanna would have been wonderful. I think that maybe Hanna Glawari should be sung by a mezzo soprano...

The singers took a long time to warm up. Especially Solveig Kringlebotn and Kjell Magnus Sandve.

It is difficult to make an operetta work, especially in our modern time.

Weak.. Sad, really.

OD Travel

Original blog post: April 2007: Die Lustige Witwe in Oslo (2007-04-18)