The Merry Widow

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Merry Widow, The (1907). Operetta had all but passed from the American scene after the earlier great epochs of French opéra bouffe, English comic opera, and Middle‐European operetta had died out in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Almost single‐handedly, this Franz Lehar operetta rekindled the mode for Viennese musicals, a vogue that lasted until World War I. Moreover, it set the fashion for operettas of the period, telling stories placed in real, contemporary locales and dealing with modern mores. Heretofore, as well as in later times, most operettas were set in distant eras and exotic, often imaginary, lands. Contemporaries perceived the best of the new school as more artful and mature than new American offerings of the time. Even more important was the softer, free‐flowing music of this new school. From The Merry Widow came such perennial favorites as “Maxim's,” “Vilja,” and “The Merry Widow Waltz” (“I Love You So”). This last song is frequently credited with initiating the vogue for ballroom dancing that soon became known as “the dancing craze.” The original New York stars of The Merry Widow, presented at the New Amsterdam Theatre in 1907, were Donald Brian and Ethel Jackson. Revivals followed regularly, with the most notable coming in 1943 with Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth in the leading roles. Recently the work has entered the repertory of several American opera companies.