Article: 9574; Posted: April 12, 2015 at 12:00 p.m.

With great fanfare and anticipation, celebrated Wagnerian soprano Deborah Voigt is gracing the stage at the Detroit Opera House in The Merry Widow. But the production by Michigan Opera Theatre is made fun and ultimately very watchable by the terrific supporting cast.

How did MOT score Ms. Voigt for the role of the Widow, Hanna Glawari? It seems she was seated next to MOT founder and artistic director Dr. David DiChiera at a dinner. They already knew one another, and when DiChiera asked her what role might it take to get her to MOT, she responded the “Widow.”

It can be out of such serendipitous meetings that magic can result. This is not one of those times. Ms. Voigt’s soprano, which is lovely to experience in any hall, is perfectly suited for Wagner and Puccini. With this Franz Lehar operetta, Ms. Voigt, and anyone playing Hanna, should be more adept at floating her notes in the upper range. She is certainly capable, but clearly wasn’t directed to do so. When you a hire a true star, there is a certain amount of self-direction that happens.

The other problem that arises for Ms. Voigt is that her stage movements and few attempts at dance don’t go well. And her attempts to dial in “the funny” to Hanna often comes across as far too American and modern for an operetta set in the Balkans at the turn of the century.If this was a choice she made with the director, it was one that should have been discarded in rehearsal.

The Merry Widow’s story is fun and saucy the way a comedic operetta should be. The country of Pontevedro is going bankrupt. Baron Mirko Zeta has an idea to get a court suitor to marry the wealthy widow Hanna Glawari to get her millions into the treasury. And he is worried that she will marry a foreigner on a trip to Paris. The logical choice is Count Danilo Danilovitch, though he is a dedicated bachelor and had a previous love affair with Hanna. The under-plot is that the handsome Camille de Rosillon, a court attaché and potential back-up plan to Danilo for the widow, is inconveniently in love with the Baroness who feels the same way toward him. The Baroness, seeing the problems of them continuing their affair, pitches him to the widow when it appears Danilo is waffling.

Widow is sometimes done with English dialogue, but the music sung in the original German. Not here. MOT has opted for the English translated lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, which, for many, do not deliver the same experience as the original German. It is a matter of taste. Even in English, the super-titles are projected above the stage.

Besides Ms. Voigt, there is also a problem with Danilo, played by Canadian tenor Roger Honeywell. Casting calls for a tenor or lyric baritone. The music favors the latter, and Mr. Honeywell (who bears an uncanny resemblance to the actor Will Ferrell on stage, which kind of helps his comedic delivery) struggles in the lower range at times to the point of distraction and needing a face mic to be heard properly. When he is called on to sing out, though, he does quite well. His depiction of the bounder who likes his evenings at Maxim’s with the ladies of the can-can, as he fights off the fate of marriage works better when he is talking than when he is singing in several parts of the show.

Where Widow gets really good is when we watch the pairings of Baron Mirko Zeta (Richard Stuart) and court fixer Njegus (Jason Graae), as well as Camille de Rosillon (Aaron Blake) and Baroness Valencienne (Amanda Squitieri). Stuart is a well-traveled Gilbert and Sullivan actor, and delivers both his acting and singing as the gullible, overwrought Baron–who fears for his bankrupt kingdom and is blind to his wife’s affair with Rossillon– with spot-on comedic timing and delivery. Graae is an experienced musical theater performer off-Broadway, as well as having played Njegus before with the Los Angeles, Houston and New Orleans opera companies. His magnetic performance, which lifts the production every time he is on stage, is at times almost reminiscent of the Emcee in Cabaret, which works just fine for the story.

Ms. Squitieri has the enviable, or unenviable depending on how one looks at it, spot of being the second soprano on stage to Ms. Voigt. But, in fact, she lights up the stage as Valencienne, getting her timing and acting just right at every turn. While she treats her much older husband Baron Zeta for a rube, even convincing him that he did not see her through the keyhole of the pavilion in the carnal embraces of Rosillon, she never forgets that she is, in fact, a lady of court and carries herself as such throughout with every movement and piece of stage business. We root for her despite her behavior, and that equals success. Mr. Blake’s tenor voice gets our attention at all times, nailing the entire range with equal force and consistency. His acting is believable and heart-felt too.

The sum of Widow’s parts is greater than the arguable miscasting of Ms. Voigt. Even at that, it is still entertaining to watch a diva of her experience and talent on the MOT stage. Even if her execution at times is wrong for the Widow, her pipes are still her pipes and should be enjoyed, especially if you haven’t seen her in Wagner or Puccini.

Sets by Michael Yeargan are lovely, especially the recreation of Maxim’s for the third act—the colors exploding off the stage when the curtains draw back. Susan Memmott-Allred’s costume design is very worthy, depicting an opulent time and place and serving the actors well.

SHOW DETAILS
The Merry Widow
Michigan Opera Theater
Detroit Opera House, 1526 Broadway, Detroit
Wednesday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, April 19 at 2:30 p.m.
Price: $118-$55
(313) 237-7464
www.michiganopera.org