Merry Widow, The (Die lustige Witwe) - Kit Hesketh-Harvey English version


Composer: Lehár, Franz 1870-1948

Version: Translation by Kit Hesketh-Harvey

“Opera North’s director Giles Havergal and translator Kit Hesketh-Harvey just want us to have fun. And we do.” - The Telegraph

Kit Hesketh-Harvey, best known as one half of the celebrated cabaret duo Kit & the Widow, wrote his witty, saucy English version of The Merry Widow for Giles Havergal’s production for Opera North in 2010, which was later produced by Opera Australia in Sydney.

In a long, prolific, extremely successful career encompassing 40 years of cabaret, Kit also wrote the screenplay for Merchant Ivory’s film of “Maurice” and worked with Richard Curtis on “The Vicar of Dibley”.  A natural entertainer with a sharp, sardonic wit and an elegant but easy style, he was very well-suited to making a new translation of Lehar, Leon and Stein’s masterpiece of the operetta genre.

Instrumentation
2(2 dbls Picc).2.2.2. / 4.2.3.0. / Timp / Perc / Hp / Str Stage band - 2 tambourizza / Bass tambourizza / Tamb / Gtr / Strings 1.1.1.1.1.


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