The Merry Widow by Lehár, From (2022/2022), Directed by Holger Schultze, Conductor Paul Taubitz, Dietger Holm, Theater Heilbronn, Heilbronn, Germany

National bankruptcy in Pontevedro. Gone is the sweet life, gone are the times when the word "Fatherland" was able to conjure up tears of emotion on the cheeks of many hardened citizens. Really over? Not yet! The death of Glawari, a country child worth millions, gives reason to hope that the state treasury will be restructured if the young widow and the inheritance stay in the country. For Hanna Glawari, however, patriotism is not a matter close to her heart. She prefers to travel to Paris. Maybe to get married there again? This must be prevented! Only the plan to set Hanna up with the most sought-after bachelor of Pontevedro in Paris, Count Danilo Danilovich, threatens to fail and thus save the millions and the fatherland. Because Hanna and Danilo: there was something... Throughout his life Franz Lehár dreamed of becoming an opera composer in the style of his admired friend Giacomo Puccini. Instead, Lehár achieved world fame with snappy operettas such as »The Merry Widow«, which premiered in 1905. Intendant Holger Schultze, who has already shown music theater in Heidelberg with successes such as the musical »Kiss me, Kate«, is the director – now for the first time in the Marguerre Hall.