Australia has had a long ongoing love affair with Franz Lehar’s popular operetta The Merry Widow initially opening at Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1908, a mere three years after its premiere. Over 100,000 people would see the Geelong-born soprano Carrie Moore as the work’s heroine, Hanna Gavari, a Balkan widow who has risen from farmer’s daughter to become a widow worth millions whilst retaining the common touch. Later, fine exponents would ensure the operetta’s enduring popularity with the likes of Gladys Moncrieff, June Bronhill, Dame Joan Sutherland and Marina Prior achieving great success in the role. Many others would be introduced to it via two filmed productions featuring Jeanette MacDonald and Lana Turner opposite the debonair Maurice Chevalier and Fernando Lamas respectively, and these have always played the piece as art nouveau fantasy. However, this new Opera Conference production (first staged by West Australian Opera in July 2017), directed by famed choreographer Graeme Murphy with a new up-to-date translation by Justin Fleming makes for a sparkling production guaranteed to delight both newcomers and opera lovers.

Antoinette Halloran and Alexander Lewis. Photograph © Darren Williams

From the opening bars of the overture, the...