The Merry Widow | Scottish Opera, Theatre Royal Glasgow, 2025
Franz Lehár’s waltz-filled operetta reimagined as a Mafia tale, replacing fin-de-siècle Parisian glamour with the world of 1950s New York and Sicily. This bold new production, directed by John Savournin with designs by takis, toured Scotland from April 2025, performing at Theatre Royal Glasgow, Eden Court Inverness, Festival Theatre Edinburgh, and His Majesty’s Theatre Aberdeen.
A co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park, this staging features a radical new English translation by director Savournin and writing partner David Eaton that blends references from The Godfather with comic caricatures. Conducted by Music Director Stuart Stratford leading the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, the production stars Paula Sides as Hanna (the wealthy widow), Alex Otterburn as Danilo (her reluctant suitor), Henry Waddington as Don Zeta, and Rhian Lois as Valentina.
The production opened to widespread acclaim, with the entire Theatre Royal Glasgow “buzzing with unfettered laughter” and garnering four-star reviews from The Telegraph, The Scotsman, The Times, and The Herald.
Set and Costume Design Vision
takis’ design transforms Lehár’s Parisian embassy into a Mafia family compound, creating a world where organized crime hierarchy replaces aristocratic protocol. The visual aesthetic draws from mid-century American and Sicilian imagery: the sleek lines of 1950s New York interior design, the sun-drenched Mediterranean landscapes of Sicily, the particular codes of dress and behavior that defined mid-century Mafia culture.
The design must accommodate both the operetta’s grand ensemble numbers—including the famous waltz sequences—and intimate romantic scenes, while maintaining the production’s comic premise. The challenge involves creating a Mafia world that reads as both authentic period setting and knowing theatrical exaggeration, allowing audiences to enjoy the cultural references while following the romantic plot.
Costume design plays a crucial role in establishing the Mafia milieu: men in sharp mid-century suits, fedoras, and the kind of studied elegance associated with organized crime figures; women in sophisticated 1950s fashion that suggests both period glamour and the constrained roles available to women within patriarchal power structures. Hanna’s widow’s wardrobe must convey both her wealth and her ambiguous position as a woman with financial power in a male-dominated world.
The production’s visual approach creates obvious parallels between aristocratic systems and organized crime structures—both involve rigid hierarchies, codes of honor, arranged relationships, and the importance of maintaining family reputation. This conceptual reframing makes Lehár’s satire of social pretension feel freshly relevant while honoring the waltz-filled score’s romantic sweep.
Creative Team
- Director: John Savournin
- Designer: takis
- Conductor: Stuart Stratford (Music Director, Scottish Opera)
- Translation: John Savournin and David Eaton
- Composers: Emma Jenkins and Toby Hession (additional music)
- Original Composer: Franz Lehár
- Original Libretto: Viktor Léon and Leo Stein
Production Context
The Merry Widow premiered in Vienna in 1905 and became one of the most successful operettas ever written, establishing Lehár as a master of the form and influencing musical theatre for decades. The work’s blend of romantic entanglements, financial scheming, and spectacular waltzes created a template for Viennese operetta’s golden age. The famous “Merry Widow Waltz” remains one of classical music’s most recognizable melodies.
This Scottish Opera production represents a growing trend of radically reconceiving classic operettas for contemporary audiences while maintaining the original scores. By transplanting the action to the Mafia world, the production makes explicit the power dynamics and financial calculations that drive the plot—Danilo must romance the wealthy widow to keep her fortune within the “family,” mirroring how aristocratic marriages served economic and political purposes.
The co-production model with D’Oyly Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park demonstrates how regional opera companies collaborate to mount ambitious productions, sharing resources and creative vision while bringing the work to multiple communities. Scottish Opera’s touring model ensures audiences across Scotland—in Glasgow, Inverness, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen—can experience large-scale opera production.
The production’s critical and popular success, with audiences responding enthusiastically to the Mafia concept and the performances, demonstrates how classic operettas can be reimagined for contemporary relevance while honoring the musical sophistication that makes these works endure. The combination of Lehár’s gorgeous score, the production’s bold concept, and takis’ evocative design creates an experience described as “a dizzying theatrical tsunami” that respects both the operetta tradition and contemporary theatrical sensibilities.