The Merry Widow

The Merry Widow
CU Presents
Macky Auditoium
Boulder, CO 
October 27-29, 2017

The Eklund Opera program at the University of Colorado provides an excellent opportunity for aspiring singers and musicians to perform classic work in front of an audience. This spring they presented The Merry Widow.

The show began with the longest overture I have ever heard. The director attempted to break that up with a pantomime, but the scenes were too short and too choppy to fill the time.

The voices of the cast members were stunning to listen to. “Vilja” was spectacularly performed and the men singing about their difficulties and the men’s septet “Women” entertaining.

This show is one that contains dialog. The acting performances among the cast were uneven. Some showed flair for the dialog, others only seemed to be reciting the lines. The characters were fairly two dimension and few of them came across as real people.

The choreography throughout was rough. While the steps were designed to be impressive, the cast did not seem to have the ability to pull them off.

The sets of the show, likely professionally done, were delightful. The multiple entranceways and exits gave the space a feeling of depth. The costumes, also professionally done, were perfect to demonstrate the wealth of the characters.

The gratuitous finale scene at Maxim’s at least enjoyable to watch. While the ending was predictable, we had a fun time getting there.