Opera Scotland

Merry Widow 2005Welsh National Opera

Read more about the opera Merry Widow

In prospect this staging seemed very promising, but somehow it didn’t quite work. The production team have an excellent record in a wide range of operas in Britain. The success of their Scottish staging of La Belle Hélène should have been a positive indicator of their light touch with operetta. But this Widow all seemed a bit flat, especially when compared to the delightful Carl Rosa staging seen in Glasgow a few months earlier. Tracey Welborn and Jeffrey Black were in disappointing vocal form. While Lesley Garrett (never known in Scotland for her operatic work) and Ailish Tynan, an attractive Valencienne, were both better, a surprising amount of the hard work fell to the familiar Scottish double act of Donald Maxwell and Linda Ormiston. Geoffrey Dolton, unaccountably, had not worked in Scotland for several years, and his beautifully timed Njegus also helped to rescue the show.