Die lustige Witwe

The idea of a festival on the Neusiedler Lake in Mörbisch (in Austria's province of Burgenland) was born in the summer of 1955; two years later, after a stage had been erected in the Mörbish Cove, Johann Strauss's "Gypsy Baron" opened the first season of the "Seefestspiele". The festival's repertory is dominated by the works of the "Golden" and "Silver" Viennese operetta, from Johann Strauss to Ralph Benatzky and Robert Stolz. Lehár's most famous operetta, "The Merry Widow", was given its world premiere on 30 December 1905 in Vienna's Theater an der Wien. It has been translated into 25 languages and played over 250,000 times around the world. It has been played everywhere, including - according to a 1910 newspaper report - on the Zambesi in the heart of colonial Africa. When it came out in New York and Chicago in 1907, it set off a veritable "Merry Widow" craze, spawning cigarettes, cocktails, hats etc.