The Merry Widow

Northern Lights Music Festival Opera presents Franz Lehar's enchanting, romantic operetta The Merry Widow.

Acclaimed soprano Jasmina Halimic stars as the beautiful and wealthy widow Hanna Glawari, whose countrymen from the failing Balkan state of Pontevedro are hoping will marry a local nobleman to save the country from bankruptcy. 

Baritone Mark Womack is the playboy Count Danilo Danilovitsch, Hanna's former lover and now, his country's best chance of surviving . . . if he can only win her back. 

Baron Zeta, the scheming Pontevedrian ambassador, is sung by baritone Kyle Albertson, while soprano Lindsay Russell portrays his young and flirtatious wife, Valencienne. The young American tenor Glenn Seven Allen rounds out the cast as the French attaché Camille, Valencienne's tirelessly ardent admire. 

Plots are hatched, jealousies arise and complications abound, until everything resolves in declarations of love at the final curtain. 

The Northern Lights Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Maestro Gavriel Heine of St. Petersburg's (Russia) Mariinsky Theater. This new production will be directed by Benjamin Spierman with sets designed by Bart Healy. The operetta will be performed in an English translation with accompanying English supertitles.

Three performances: July 10 at 7:00 PM in Mesabi East Auditorium, Aurora, MN; July 12 at 3:00 PM at Chisholm HS Auditorium, Chisholm, MN; and July 13 at 7:00 PM at Washington Auditorium, Ely, MN.

Tickets: $25 Adults / $15 Students under 18.