BWW Reviews: MET OPERA - THE MERRY WIDOW, Cineworld Wandsworth, January 17 2015

Theatre is magical, of course. We're locked in a space, collaborators in the creation of a world all of our own, the heritage stretching back thousands of years. Cinema isn't like that. Shadows on a screen don't carry the heft of real people on a stage, there's adverts and popcorn and it's not so much an imagined world as an imagined living room. So there's work to do; even more when technical problems supervene and pictures and sound do not coincide for ten minutes or so.

Then... then...

Sir Andrew Davis has the baton waving and Franz Lehar's jaunty tunes start to fizz and pop and the magnificent set, costumes and the epic scale of the production draws you in and...that magic slowly happens.

The Merry Widow is an operetta: so it's pretty much a musical, especially in this crowdpleaser of a staging by Broadway director Susan Stroman, also starring Broadway's Kelli O'Hara. This is opera as accessible as it gets (well, it is if you don't mention the Met's ticket prices).

As in many of Gilbert and Sullivan's works, the plot is hardly complex. To save his tiny principality's perilous finances, Paris-based roué Danilo (a charming Nathan Gunn) is leant upon to marry farm-girl turned wealthy widow Hanna Glawari (Renée Fleming) who is, of course, suddenly popular amongst men of all origins. There's plenty more affairs de coeur underway too, so cue the assignations, the misunderstandings and the subterfuge.

Sung in English, the arias (well, the songs) are witty and clever, the melodies romantic and spiky as required. The highlight is the famous Vilja Song, a fairytale from Hanna's faraway home delivered pin-sharp by Ms Fleming living up to her stellar reputation. Another peak is the men's bonding song, "Who can tell what the hell women are?" - just about their only "win" over the women throughout the whole three hours! And there's an underlying message weaving in and out of the fun too, one about the value of forgiveness, of the trial monogamy can prove to be and of the importance of seeking joy in life, for all its dangers and the pain it can inflict. There's an edge behind the laughter.

You pay significantly more for these live HD transmissions than for a seat to watch an Oscar-nominated movie, but it's still many fewer pounds than the dollars you would hand over for a seat anywhere at the awesome New York Metropolitan Opera House. For that price, you get the very best singers in the world, the most sumptuous sets (Chez Maxim in Act III is quite a sight) and something of the intensity of being there. Is it worth the money? Whether you're marrying a wealthy widow or not, it surely is!

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