Opera on the James: In movement
By Casey Gillis on Apr. 14, 2010
(434) 385-5525
Dean Anthony is a hands-on director if there ever was one.
During a rehearsal for Opera on the James’ upcoming production of “The Merry Widow,” he’s right in the middle of the action during a party scene early in Act II.
Anthony, the resident stage director for the Shreveport Opera, runs into the scene at various points to show the actors what he’s looking for.
“It’s all a relaxed, nice, free-flowing event,” he tells them. “It’s all about friends and being engaged.
“The curtain opens, and you are in movement.”
In quick succession, he goes from being a party guest to the widow herself.
Later, when a group of dancers goes over a routine, Anthony stands in front of them, clapping to the music, and eventually starts dancing with them.
“I can make a very, very pretty widow,” says Anthony, who is also choreographing the show. “Body posture is so crucial. It’s easy for someone (today) to be so contemporary. It’s so fun to make people aware of that.
“It’s important for a director to teach as well as direct.”
“The Merry Widow” — which is set for one performance at 3 p.m. Sunday (see box) — tells the story of Hanna, the widow of the wealthiest man in the fictional European country of Pontevedro.
The action takes place in the early 1900s, at the Pontevedrian embassy in Paris, where Hanna goes on holiday. Pontevedrians there, including Baron Mirko Zeta, worry that she’ll marry a foreigner, which would spell financial ruin for their tiny country.
“They want her to stay there to keep them afloat,” Anthony says.
So — in a plot straight out of a contemporary romantic comedy — Baron Zeta plots to have ladies man Danilo woo her, without knowing that the pair already has a romantic history.
“They want him to seduce the widow and marry her to keep her in Pontevedro,” he says. “(But) there’s this old tension, and it carries quite far into the show.”
Anthony and Opera on the James Executive Director Cecelia Schieve say the show is playful and lighthearted. Written by composer Franz Lehár, it premiered in Vienna in 1905, and within two years, the first English adaptation became a sensation in London.
“This one just happened to hit,” Schieve says. “It was everywhere.”
Anthony says that “Widow,” a Viennese operetta, is what opened the door for musical theater. It combines elements of classical music with operatic and cabaret-style singing, lively dialogue, theatrical realism, dance and comedy.
Operettas like it “are harder than straight opera,” he says. “I find these wear me out more, in a good way.”
If You’re Going
WHAT: The Merry Widow
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: E.C. Glass High School
TICKETS: $85 for patron reserved seats, $50 for reserved, $24 for general admission and $10 for students.
INFO: (434) 528-3397 or http://www.operaonthejames.org
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