KEEPING THINGS MERRY

TOP LEFT: Ethel Jackson in the original Broadway production of The Merry Widow, 1907

TOP RIGHT: The artwork promoting the original The Merry Widow, 1907

BOTTOM: Iford Arts performing Die Fledermaus, 2019

LEFT: Conductor Oliver Gooch

CENTRE: Musical director Simon Butteriss

Mr Lehar’s music hath charms

So said the title of Stage magazine’s review of a 1937 production of The Merry Widow, going on to describe it as “gay, and one might almost say sparkling”. Musical director Simon Butterissand conductor Oliver Goochanswer some questions about the longlasting popularity of this operetta, and the challenges of the latest production by Iford Arts

Since its 1905 debut, The Merry Widow has been adapted many times. What is it about the story that resonates with people? Simon Butteriss: It has all the elements of a good romance but wittily subverts them with an astonishingly modern energy; the would-be lovers are both strongwilled and though the woman has the upper hand, neither will give in until they can do so on absolutely equal terms. It’s also an e xhilaratingly beautiful score.

W hy does the story stand out for you? SB: The romance is never sentimental – it crackles with wit and naughtiness until suddenly you find you’re weeping wellearned romantic tears. Without doubt it is my favourite operetta; the perfect operetta.

What drew you to working with Simon? Oliver Gooch: I first saw Simon getting out of a shower in Music Theatre London’s production of Così fan tutte! The next time w as when we worked together on his narrated version of Die Fledermaus in St John’s, Smith Square. It was a joy. As a seasoned performer, he understands what fellow singers need and is brilliant at enabling them to perform at their very best.

Oliver, as the conductor how do you convey the vision of the composer? OG: The most important aspect is to help enable the performers to realise the vision of t he composer. Over 15 years as music director at Iford I have learnt that while you may have your own strong ideas, it means nothing unless you can harness the energy, skill and talent of your fellow artists. Taking over as Iford’s artistic director last year has given me a hugely exciting challenge to address broader issues that will influence the composer’s vision – production con cepts, d esign ideas and the choice of the very best young talent in the UK.

What has been your favourite opera to direct and perform? OG: An impossible question! If I take on a project, it has to be my world from the very start to the very end. Nothing else really enters my consciousness. There are certain composers that I feel a particular affinity for, especially the Italian bel canto and verismo. I was l ucky enough to conduct Puccini in L ucca (his hometown) and my apartment looked on to Puccini’s veranda. The pressure was palpable! I was brought up in Suffolk so have had the music of Benjamin Britten in my bones from the very start. I was also very influenced by Colin Davis and Charles Mackerras as their assistant on the da Ponte/Mozart operas – two wonderfully different approaches.

SP: It’s always a pleas ure to direct a wellk nown piece – if it’s good, one can always find a way of reinventing it so that the audience will feel it’s been written especially for them and, with any luck, even those who know it might feel they’re seeing it for the very first time. I’ve had as much fun reimagining The Merry Widow as anything else I’ve ever tackled.

Oliver what are you looking forward to the most about conducting T he Merry Wi dow? OG: It has to be the best operetta score ever written. What more could I want? You could sing many of the tunes to people on the street and they would recognise them. We have free tickets for under 18s and I am convinced that young people will love this performance as much as the seasoned opera goer. The can-canning grisettes have to be the most enduring image of the Belle Époque, and we ha ve six of them. In keeping w ith Iford’s ambition to present extraordinary music in extraordinary places, this version of The Merry Widow will be no different. The Guildhall is a stunning Grade I listed building and the banqueting hall will be the perfect venue for our salon-style presentation. I will be leading a salon orchestra from the piano, visible to everyone.

What can the audience expect from this pe rformance? S P: Beautiful as the banqueting hall is, it’s not designed for conventional stage production but I didn’t want to do a concert performance with a narrator at a lectern, so it’s fully costumed, fully staged and choreographed and one character, an embassy servant ‘in the know’ – and in the action – keeps us informed of the innermost thoughts of all the characters, so that the narrative moves at a bre athless pace. The c horus may start the evening sitting in serried ranks, but before long they are on the stage, dancing, among other things, an energetic can-can. Who knows, perhaps the orchestra will too.

Some years ago, I was asked by the Philharmonia Orchestra to write a narration for a concert performance of an operetta at the Royal Festival Hall. I persuaded them to move the orchestra back on the plat form to m ake a stage, find a costume budget and let me perform a dramatised narration. They agreed – if I would direct the production. I’d never directed before but, all things considered, I thought I’d better. So I did.

Simon, what drew you to this operetta? SP: I’ve loved this operetta since I first discovered, aged three, my parents’ scratched LP of the old Sadler’s Wells production. I love it as much now as I did then – I think operetta speaks as honestly and engagingly to a child as it does to the most sophisticated of opera lovers.

As narrator you replace the traditional dialogue and use current topics to add wit –how do you know that this will work? SP: One can never know what will tickle an audience, but if the original has a genuine connection with current events and you can point it out succinctl y and wittily, it can really help focus the plot and it is that which hits the funny bone.

The Merry Widow is a semi-staged production – does this make it challenging? SP: Any production is a challenge – one has to use the raw materials at your disposal as imaginatively as you can – but if the audience is expecting a concert performance they will, I hope, be pleasantly surprised by the amount of colour, ener gy and action.

W hat is the most challenging part of conducting this operetta? OG: Everything! It is such a wonderful score but it requires both enormous delicacy as well as feisty bravura. Everything needs to feel as if it grows out of the nuance of the text. The personality of the singer is key and we have some wonderful artists performing, including tenor Robin Bailey as the amorous Camille alongside Maír e Flavin, a supremely t alented young Irish soprano.

What would you say has been the most influential adaptation of The Merry Widow? SP: It’s been fabulously (and sometimes horribly) revived countless times but it’s worth seeking out the marvellously eccentric Ernst Lubitsch 1934 film, or Lana Turner and Gwen Verdon in an odd 1952 incarnation. Although Elisabeth Schwarzkopf recorded it exquisitely more than o nce, my favourite recording remains t he Sadler’s Wells highlights in English, starring June Bronhill and Thomas Round. n