The Merry Widow by Lehár, Noiztik (2022/2022), Zuzendaria Michael Schilhan, Zuzendaria Diego Martin-Etxebarria, Opernhaus Chemnitz, Chemnitz, Germany

The Viennese comedian Fritz Grünbaum already knew: “In the absence of a better restaurant, the people dance on the volcano”. Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widowseems to exemplify the pointed statement. Here, more precisely, you dance at the embassy ball or in the nightclub, and while the fate of the fatherland hangs by a thread, the diplomatic corps of the small state of Pontevedro enjoys life in Paris to the full. At the same time, everyone looks at the young widow Hanna Glawari, whose hand the Parisian male world is wooing. If the Pontevedrin heiress does not marry a compatriot, her fortune migrates abroad. Your home state would be bankrupt in one fell swoop. Chief diplomat Baron Zeta puts everything on one card: Legation Secretary Count Danilo Danilowitsch is supposed to avert the impending catastrophe, preferably by marrying the Glawari himself. The notorious bachelor doesn't even think about it. He feels much too at home with the Grisettes in Maxim. And wasn't there an old story between him and Hanna? ... After the meeting of the two leads to a formal "declaration of war" and Hanna becomes engaged to a Frenchman, the bankruptcy seems inevitable. Nevertheless, Pontevedro gets away with it again. Hanna, the Parisian gentlemen are really pissed off. All she is looking for is the man who she truly loves, even without her money, and of course she finds him - in Danilo. Franz Lehárs The Merry Widow became a worldwide success in 1905 and the hour of birth of the modern operetta. Melodies like lips are silent , There I go to Maxim or The study of women is difficult became common property in a very short time. Lehár's masterpiece easily unites questions of money and love, political satire and the struggle of a self-determined heroine for the man she wants. Director Michael Schilhan already impressed people in Chemnitz with his productions The Magic Flute and Emil and the Detectives . Now he will trace the corrupt and cheerful diplomats. Anyone who walks through life with alert eyes like Schilhan knows: Pontevedro is everywhere and Grünbaum's bon mot is timelessly up-to-date.