Met Opera Live Ireland: The Merry Widow

All the glitter and romance of the most popular of all Viennese operettas is in the air.

On Saturday 17th January, the Met’s stunning new production of Franz Lehár’s great comic romance, The Merry Widow, starring the incomparable soprano Renée Fleming, comes live by satellite from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York to cinema screens across Dublin. Met Opera Live in Ireland!

Get your tickets now before it sells out! City Centre Cinemas includes the IMC Screen Cinema and The Light House Cinema. (clicking on each will take you to booking page)

Set in the glamorous diplomatic circles of Art Nouveau Paris, The Merry Widow tells the story of a beautiful and extremely wealthy widow who captivates high society. Highly eligible, she becomes the subject of a patriotic plot to marry her to a suitable partner to ensure her huge fortune stays in her impoverished country of Pontevedria, and in all of that (eventually) finds true love and happiness.

Lehár’s melodic music has been hugely popular since its premiere in 1905, and numbers like ‘Vilia’, ‘the Merry Widow Waltz’, and ‘You’ll find me at Maxim’s’ continue to be widely performed, recorded and loved by audiences all over the world.

The Met’s new production, performed in English, is a lavish and elegant staging by Broadway virtuoso director and choreographer Susan Stroman. She and her design team have created a rich art-nouveau setting that climaxes with singing and dancing grisettes at the legendary Maxim’s. The operetta stars the peerless Renée Fleming as Hanna, perfectly cast as the Merry widow of the title, Nathan Gunn co-stars opposite her as Danilo, and Broadway star Kelli O’Hara is Valencienne.

Advance sales for this live transmission have set new Irish records for the Met live in HD. A number of venues have added additional screens and ‘encore’ screenings (recorded repeat) to cater for demand.