Film: Sex, Drugs, and Costner

The Widow’s semi-reluctant suitor, Danilo, was the Swedish baritone Hakan Hagegard, a fine and versatile performer. It was pleasant to think that this suave, charming operetta singer was the same man I had heard a year before in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14, one of the bleakest, most harrowing works in music. His Danilo went down easy. But he seemed to tire toward the end, as did von Stade. Their “Lippen schweigen”— the great, waltzy duet on which the operetta concludes—was awful: ragged, unfeeling; just badly, badly sung.

In all, this Widow, conducted by the Israeli Asher Fisch, was a surprising failure. It was often pretty and acceptable, but not scintillating, not effervescent— not sufficiently “Viennesey,” to borrow from Ira Gershwin. It was like a glass of cola that had lost its fizz. Its 1-2-3 was a little straight. It was beset with coordination problems. So the Met managed to accomplish the nearly impossible: a dull Merry Widow, which made for a less than merry holiday season.

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John Simon

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The Widow’s semi-reluctant suitor, Danilo, was the Swedish baritone Hakan Hagegard, a fine and versatile performer. It was pleasant to think that this suave, charming operetta singer was the same man I had heard a year before in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14, one of the bleakest, most harrowing works in music. His Danilo went down easy. But he seemed to tire toward the end, as did von Stade. Their “Lippen schweigen”— the great, waltzy duet on which the operetta concludes—was awful: ragged, unfeeling; just badly, badly sung.

In all, this Widow, conducted by the Israeli Asher Fisch, was a surprising failure. It was often pretty and acceptable, but not scintillating, not effervescent— not sufficiently “Viennesey,” to borrow from Ira Gershwin. It was like a glass of cola that had lost its fizz. Its 1-2-3 was a little straight. It was beset with coordination problems. So the Met managed to accomplish the nearly impossible: a dull Merry Widow, which made for a less than merry holiday season.