Die lustige Witwe

In the organizer's words:

The merry widow is Hanna Glawari. She has inherited a fortune and can now enjoy herself and make the salons of the Parisian upper class unsafe. If only it weren't for all her admirers who have their eyes on her fortune! Now she sees the chance to marry her childhood sweetheart Danilo - but he, of all people, doesn't want to get the reputation of marrying for greed.

It was actually the men who had to take the first step for centuries. But in Franz Lehár's operetta, men can no longer be relied on, and so it is Hanna herself who sets all the wheels in motion to win her love. Franz Lehár turned the conventions of operetta at the time on their head and landed a sensational success: he skilfully captured the changes in the social climate after 1900 - from the discussion about women's suffrage to the dawn of sexual liberalization. "The Merry Widow" became an international media event: soon, inspired by Hanna's costume, people were promenading in increasingly large "Merry Widow" hats and dancing all over the world to "Lippen schweigen, 's flüstern Geigen".