Royal Danish Theatre tickets 2 May 2025 - Die lustige Witwe 2.0 | GoComGo.com

Die lustige Witwe 2.0

Royal Danish Theatre, The Opera House - Main Stage, Copenhagen, Denmark
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8 PM
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US$ 95

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You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Important Info
Type: Operetta
City: Copenhagen, Denmark
Starts at: 20:00
Intervals: 1
Duration: 2h 30min
Sung in: Danish
Titles in: Danish,English

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast
Performers
Soprano: Denise Beck (Valencienne)
Soprano: Gisela Stille (Hanna Glawari)
Tenor: Jens Christian Tvilum (Camille, Count de Rosillon)
Conductor: Keren Kagarlitsky
Bass-Baritone: Simon Duus (Baron Mirko Zeta)
Choir: The Royal Danish Opera Chorus
Orchestra: The Royal Danish Orchestra
Creators
Composer: Franz Lehár
Choreographer: Signe Fabricius
Director: Kasper Holten
Librettist: Leo Stein
Librettist: Viktor Léon
Overview

Tickle your funny bone and indulge your ears with Lehár's festive operetta.Tickle your funny bone and indulge your ears with Lehár's festive operetta.

Lehár's operetta Die lustige Witwe features timeless hits reimagined in a modern and humorous style by Adam Price, with dazzling staging by Kasper Holten.

Award-winning writer Adam Price and director of the Royal Danish Theatre, Kasper Holten, have crafted a new version of Lehár’s evergreen operetta, Die lustige Witwe, which playfully critiques their beloved theatre world.

The original embassy parties are relocated to a financially starved, modern and easily recognisable Danish cultural scene. True to the original, the air is thick with intrigue and corners are rife with sultry affairs, all set against the backdrop of our confessional era, which is sharply and entertainingly satirised.

Theatre director Zeta seeks a lifeline through sponsorship from the coveted widow Hanna Glawari, who in this version inherits her fortune from a wealthy hog farmer in Jutland. The famous Grisettes will never be the same after Hanna’s grand party in the pigsty.

Naturally, the soundtrack to these tongue-in-cheek antics is Franz Lehár's sweeping music, replete with catchy tunes and complemented by the fiery frenzy of dancers.

Tickle your funny bone and delight your ears as the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Royal Danish Opera Chorus and a star-studded cast of soloists perform such Lehár evergreens as Vilja-LiedDa geh' ich zu Maxim and Lippen schweigen.

In collaboration with the Bergen National Opera.

History
Premiere of this production: 30 December 1905, Theater an der Wien, Vienna

The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe) is an operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play, L'attaché d'ambassade (The Embassy Attaché) by Henri Meilhac.

Synopsis

Act 1
The embassy in Paris of the poverty-stricken Balkan principality of Pontevedro is holding a ball to celebrate the birthday of the sovereign, the Grand Duke. Hanna Glawari, who has inherited twenty million francs from her late husband, is to be a guest at the ball – and the Pontevedrin ambassador, Baron Zeta, is scheming to ensure that she will keep her fortune in the country, saving Pontevedro from bankruptcy. The Baron intends that Count Danilo Danilovitsch, the first secretary of the embassy, should marry the widow; unfortunately for this plan, Danilo is not at the party, so Zeta sends Danilo's assistant Njegus to fetch him from Maxim's.

Danilo arrives and meets Hanna. It emerges they were in love before her marriage, but his uncle had interrupted their romance because Hanna had had nothing to her name. Though they still love each other, Danilo now refuses to court Hanna for her fortune, and Hanna vows that she will not marry him until he says "I love you" – something he claims he will never do.

Meanwhile, Baron Zeta's wife Valencienne has been flirting with the French attaché to the embassy, Count Camille de Rosillon, who writes "I love you" on her fan. Valencienne puts off Camille's advances, saying that she is a respectable wife. However, they lose the incriminating fan, which is found by embassy counsellor Kromow. Kromow jealously fears that the fan belongs to his own wife, Olga, and gives it to Baron Zeta. Not recognising it, Baron Zeta decides to return the fan discreetly, in spite of Valencienne's desperate offers to take it "to Olga" herself.

On his way to find Olga, the Baron meets Danilo, and his diplomatic mission takes precedence over the fan. The Baron orders Danilo to marry Hanna. Danilo refuses, but offers to eliminate any non-Pontevedrin suitors as a compromise.

As the "Ladies' Choice" dance is about to begin, Hanna becomes swarmed with hopeful suitors. Valencienne volunteers Camille to dance with Hanna, privately hoping that the Frenchman will marry her and cease to be a temptation for Valencienne herself. True to his bargain with the Baron, Danilo circulates the ballroom, rounding up ladies to claim dances and thin the crowd around the wealthy widow. Hanna, however, chooses the one man who is not apparently interested in dancing with her: Danilo, who immediately announces that he will sell his dance with Hanna Glawari for ten thousand francs, with the proceeds to benefit charity. This extinguishes the remaining suitors' interest in the dance. After they have left, Danilo attempts to dance with Hanna, who refuses in annoyance. Nonchalantly he proceeds to waltz by himself, eventually wearing down Hanna's resistance, and she falls into his arms.

Act 2
Scene 1
The next evening, everyone is dressed in Pontevedrin clothing for a garden party at Hanna's house, now celebrating the Grand Duke's birthday in his own country's fashion. Hanna entertains by singing an old Pontevedrin song: "Es lebt' eine Vilja, ein Waldmägdelein" ("There lived a Vilja, a maid of the woods"). Meanwhile, Baron Zeta fears that Camille will spoil his plan for Hanna to marry a Pontevedrin. Still not recognising the fan as Valencienne's, the Baron orders Danilo to discover the identity of its owner, whom he correctly assumes to be Camille's married lover. The two men, along with Njegus, arrange to meet that evening in Hanna's garden pavilion to discuss Danilo's findings, as well as the problem of securing the widow's fortune for Pontevedro. Seeing the fan, Hanna takes the message on it to be Danilo's declaration of love for her, which he denies. His inquiries regarding the fan prove fruitless, but do reveal infidelities committed by some of the wives of embassy personnel.

Scene 2
That evening, Camille and Valencienne meet in the garden, where Valencienne insists that they must part. Discovering the fan, accidentally left behind by Danilo, Camille begs Valencienne to let him have it as a keepsake. Valencienne agrees, writing "I'm a respectable wife" on it as a rejoinder to Camille's "I love you." Camille persuades Valencienne to join him in the pavilion so that they can say their goodbyes in private. This is of course the same pavilion where Danilo, the Baron, and Njegus have agreed to meet, and the latter, arriving first, locks the door when he spots people inside. Baron Zeta and Danilo follow, but Njegus quickly arranges with Hanna to change places with Valencienne. Camille emerges from the pavilion with Hanna, who announces that they plan to marry, leaving the Baron distraught at the thought of Pontevedro losing Hanna's millions and Valencienne distraught at losing Camille. Danilo is furious, and tells the story of a Princess who cheated on her Prince ("Es waren zwei Königskinder)" before storming off to seek distraction at Maxim's. Hanna realises that Danilo's anger over her engagement to another man proves that he loves her, and she rejoices amid the general despair.

Act 3
Act 3 is set at a theme party in Hanna's ballroom, which she has decorated to look like Maxim's, complete with Maxim's grisettes (can-can dancers). Valencienne, who has dressed herself as a grisette, entertains the guests ("Ja, wir sind es, die Grisetten"). When Danilo arrives, having found the real Maxim's empty, he tells Hanna to give up Camille for the sake of Pontevedro. Much to Danilo's delight, Hanna replies truthfully that she was never engaged to Camille but was protecting the reputation of a married woman. Danilo comes very close to declaring his love for Hanna, but stops himself from doing so when he remembers her money and his proud refusal to court her for it. Njegus produces the fan, which he picked up earlier, and Baron Zeta finally remembers that it belongs to Valencienne. He swears to divorce his wife and marry the widow himself, but Hanna stops him by declaring that she will lose her fortune if she remarries. At this, Danilo promptly confesses his love for her and asks Hanna to marry him. Hanna triumphantly accepts, adding that she will lose her fortune only because it will become the property of her new husband. Valencienne assures Baron Zeta of her fidelity by pointing out her reply to Camille's declaration of love written on the fan: "Ich bin eine anständige Frau" ("I'm a respectable wife"). All ends happily.

Venue Info

Royal Danish Theatre - Copenhagen
Location   August Bournonvilles Passage 2-8

The Royal Danish Theatre is the major opera house in Denmark. It has been located at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen since 1748, originally designated as the king's theatre but with public access. The theatre presents opera, the Royal Danish Ballet, classical music concerts (by the Royal Danish Orchestra, which dates back to 1448), and drama in several locations.

The Royal Danish Theatre organization is under the control of the Danish Ministry of Culture, and its objectives are to ensure the staging of outstanding performances that do justice to the various stages that it controls.

The first edifice on the site was designed by court architect Nicolai Eigtved, who also masterminded Amalienborg Palace. In 1774, the old theatre seating 800 theatergoers were reconstructed by architect C.F. Harsdorff to accommodate a larger audience.

During the theatre's first seasons the staffing was modest. Originally, the ensemble consisted of eight actors, four actresses, two male dancers, and one female dancer. Gradually over the following decades, the Royal Danish Theatre established itself as the kind of multi-theatre we know today, home to drama, opera, ballet, and concerts – all under the same roof and management.

An important prerequisite for the theatre's artistic development is its schools. The oldest is the ballet school, established at the theatre in 1771. Two years later, a vocal academy was established as a forerunner for the opera academy. A number of initiatives were considered regarding a drama school, which was established much later.

King Frederik VI, who ascended the throne in 1808, is probably the monarch who most actively took part in the management of the Royal Danish Theatre, not as an arbiter of taste but as its supreme executive chef.

The theatre's bookkeeping accounts of these years show numerous endorsements where the king took personal decisions on everything from wage increases and bonuses to the purchase of shoelaces for the ballerinas. Indeed, the Royal Danish Theatre became the preoccupation of an introverted nation, following the English Wars had suffered a state bankruptcy. "In Denmark, there is only one city and one theatre," as philosopher Søren Kierkegaard put it.

This was the theatre to which the 14-year-old fairytale storyteller Hans Christian Andersen devoted his early ambition. This was also the theatre that became the social and artistic focal point of the many brilliant artists of Denmark's Golden Age.

After the abolition of absolute monarchy in 1849, the Royal Danish Theatre's status as "the city's theatre" fell into decline. No longer enjoying a monopoly within the performing arts, the Royal Danish Theatre was now required by its new owner, the state, to serve the entire nation. The dilapidated building at Kongens Nytorv also found it hard to compete with the splendor of the new popular stage that was rapidly emerging across town. The solution was to construct a brand new theatre building. It was designed in the Historicist style of the times by architects William Dahlerup and Ove Pedersen and situated alongside the old theatre, which was subsequently demolished.

The inauguration of what we today call the Old Stage took place on 15 October 1874. Here opera and ballet were given ample scope. But due to the scale of the building, the auditorium was less suited for spoken drama, which is why a new playhouse was required.

The Royal Danish Theatre has over the past decade undergone the most extensive transformation ever in its over 250-year history. The Opera House in Copenhagen was inaugurated in January 2005, donated by the AP Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation, and designed by architect Henning Larsen. And the Royal Danish Playhouse was completed in 2008. Located by Nyhavn Canal across from the Opera House, the playhouse is designed by architects Boje Lundgaard and Lene Tranberg.

Today, the Royal Danish Theatre comprises the Old Stage, located by Kongens Nytorv, the Opera House, and the Royal Danish Playhouse. 

Important Info
Type: Operetta
City: Copenhagen, Denmark
Starts at: 20:00
Intervals: 1
Duration: 2h 30min
Sung in: Danish
Titles in: Danish,English
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