Broadway director and choreographer Susan Stroman, whose many credits include the Tony Award-winning musicals Crazy For You, Contact, and The Producers, made her Met debut with a lavish new staging of Lehár's effervescent operetta The Merry Widow, performed in English in a new translation by Jeremy Sams. Lehár's best-known composition has been an audience favorite since its 1905 premiere and features a great deal of well-known music, including 'Vilja,” 'You'll Find Me At Maxim's,” and 'The... Merry Widow Waltz”. Renée Fleming added a new character to her wide-ranging Met repertory as Hanna, the widowed Parisian millionairess. Andrew Davis conducted a cast that also included Nathan Gunn as Hanna's lover Danilo; Alek Shrader as the young nobleman Camille de Rosillon; Thomas Allen as the scheming Baron Zeta; and Broadway soprano Kelli O'Hara in her Met debut as the Baron's coquettish wife Valencienne.
This recording is the repeat of The Met: Live in HD at Müpa Budapest serie on 17 January 2015.