Merry Widow

The great Renée Fleming stars as the beguiling femme fatale who captivates all Paris in Lehár’s enchanting operetta, seen in a new staging by Broadway virtuoso director and choreographer Susan Stroman (The Producers, Oklahoma!, Contact). Stroman and her design team of Julian Crouch (Satyagraha, The Enchanted Island) and costume designer William Ivey Long (Cinderella, Grey Gardens, Hairspray) have created an art-nouveau setting that climaxes with singing and dancing grisettes at the legendary Maxim’s. Nathan Gunn co-stars as Danilo and Kelli O’Hara is Valencienne. Sir Andrew Davis conducts.

Lotfi Mansouri's spectacular last production as General Director of San Francisco Opera with Yvonne Kenny making her debut in the title role, new dialogue specially commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Wendy Wasserstein, and an original ballet to set the scene Chez Maxim's, bringing fresh insight into Lehár's classic operetta.

Italian band Merry Go Round first appeared back in 1985, then using the moniker Storks. They never released any official albums back then, but they released a demo tape and was an active live band, among the highlights of those early days was opening for legendary UK band The Pretty Things in 1988. Storks went into hiatus in 1990 when Michele Profeti and Stefano Gabbani decided to join Daniele Caputo and his new band Standarte. In 2012 Storks reunited, and expanded the line-up with guitar player Sandro Vitolo and vocalist Martina Vivaldi. This new and expanded version of the band was named Merry Go Round, and they released their self-titled debut album in 2015 through Italian label Black Widow Records. Their music is plain old school heavy rock with a very ballsy female vocalist. The music rocks hard and is loaded with electric guitar, roaring Hammond and vintage Mellotron, and some Moog too.