# The Merry Widow discography

This is a discography of The Merry Widow (German: Die lustige Witwe), an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. It was first performed at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 30 December 1905. The operetta has been recorded both live and in the studio many times, and several video recordings have been made. The first recording of a substantially complete version of the score was made in 1907 with Marie Ottmann and Gustav Matzner in the lead roles. The next full recording was issued in 1950, in English with Dorothy Kirsten and Robert Rounseville in the leading roles.
In 1953, EMI's Columbia label released a near-complete version produced by Walter Legge, conducted by Otto Ackermann, with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Hanna, Erich Kunz as Danilo, Nicolai Gedda as Camille and Emmy Loose as Valencienne. It was sung in German, with abridged spoken dialogue. Loose sang Valencienne again for Decca in the first stereophonic recording, produced in 1958 by John Culshaw, with Hilde Gueden, Per Grundén and Waldemar Kmentt in the other main roles, and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Robert Stolz. A second recording with Schwarzkopf as Hanna was issued by Columbia in 1963; the other main roles were sung by Eberhard Wächter, Gedda and Hanny Steffek. This set, conducted by Lovro von Matačić, has been reissued on CD in EMI's "Great Recordings of the Century" series. Among later complete or substantially complete sets are those conducted by Herbert von Karajan with Elizabeth Harwood as Hanna (1972); Franz Welser-Möst with Felicity Lott (1993); and John Eliot Gardiner with Cheryl Studer (1994).
The Ackermann recording received the highest available rating in the 1956 The Record Guide and the later EMI set under Matačić is highly rated by the 2008 The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music, but Alan Blyth in his Opera on CD regrets the casting of a baritone as Danilo in both sets and prefers the 1958 Decca version. Among the filmed productions on DVD, the Penguin Guide recommends the one from the San Francisco Opera, recorded live in 2001, conducted by Erich Kunzel and directed by Lotfi Mansouri, with Yvonne Kenny as Hanna and Bo Skovhus as Danilo.
The recordings listed below are sung in German unless otherwise noted.

## Audio

| Date | Recording | Conductor | Orchestra (if known) | Notes |
| 1906 | | unknown | | |
| 1907 | studio | Bruno Seidler-Winkler | Grammophon-Streich-Orchester | with dialogue |
| 1931 | studio (excerpts) | unknown | | Sung in Spanish |
| 193? | studio (excerpts) | Paul Minsart | Grand Orchestra | French |
| 1942 | studio (excerpts) | Isaac Van Grove | | English |
| 1943-44 | studio (excerpts) | Isaac Van Grove | | English |
| 1948? | studio (excerpts) | Max Rudolf | | English |
| 1950 | radio | Wilhelm Stephan | Sinfonieorchester des Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunks, Hamburg | |
| 1950? | studio (excerpts) | Al Goodman | Al Goodman Orchestra | English |
| 1950? | studio | Victor Reinshagen | Tonhalle Orchester Zürich | |
| 1951? | studio (excerpts) | George Greeley | | English |
| 1952 | studio (excerpts) | Lehman Engel | | English |
| 1953 | studio (excerpts) | Jules Gressier | Orchestre Lamoureux | French |
| 1953 | studio | Otto Ackermann | Philharmonia Orchestra | |
| 1953? | studio (excerpts) | Heinz Sandauer | Das große Funkorchester von Radio Wien | |
| 1955 | studio (excerpts) | Enrique Montorio, Ricardo Navarro, Daniel Estavarena | Orquesta de Cámera de Madrid | Spanish |
| 1956? | studio | Marcel Cariven | Grande Orchestra | French |
| 1957 | studio (excerpts) | Hans Hagen | Vienna Volksoper | |
| 1958 | studio (excerpts) | William Reid | Sadler's Wells Opera | English |
| 1958 | studio | Robert Stolz | Vienna State Opera | |
| 1959? | studio (excerpts) | R Chevreux | | French |
| 1959? | studio (excerpts) | Egon Kjerrman | | |
| 1959? | studio (excerpts) | Richard Müller-Lampertz | | French |
| 195? | radio | Max Schönherr | Das große Funkorchester von Radio Wien | |
| 195? | studio (excerpts) | Richard Blareau | | French |
| 195? | studio (excerpts) | Cesare Gallino | Orchestra Lirica Cetra | Italian |
| 195? | studio (excerpts) | Franz Marszalek | Großes Operetten-Orchester | |
| 195? | studio (excerpts) | Edmund Nick | Munich Philharmonic | |
| 195? | studio (excerpts) | Wilhelm Stephan | Großes Operetten-Orchester | |
| 1960 | studio (excerpts) | Franck Pourcel | Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire | French |
| 1960? | studio (excerpts) | Anton Paulik | Großes Operetten-Orchester | |
| 1960? | studio (excerpts) | Werner Schmidt-Boelcke | FFB Orchester | |
| 1960? | studio (excerpts) | George Walter | The Opera Society Orchestra | |
| 1961 | studio (excerpts) | Lehman Engel | | English |
| 1961 | studio (excerpts) | John Hollingsworth | Sinfonia of London | English |
| 1962 | studio | Lovro von Matačić | Philharmonia Orchestra | |
| 1962? | studio (excerpts) | Franz Allers | American Opera Society | English |
| 1962? | studio (excerpts) | Jacques Pastory | | French |
| 1964 | studio (excerpts) | Franz Allers | Music Theater of Lincoln Center | English |
| 1964? | studio (excerpts) | Rudolf Neuhaus | Dresden Philharmonic | |
| 1965 | studio | Robert Stolz | Berliner Sinfoniker | |
| 1966 | studio | Yvon Leenart | Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire | French |
| 1967 | studio (excerpts) | Willy Mattes | Das Symphonieorchester Graunke | |
| 1968 | studio (excerpts) | Franz Marszalek | Großes Operetten-Orchester | |
| 1968? | studio (excerpts) | Franz Bauer-Theussl | Vienna State Opera orchestra and Volksoper | |
| 1968? | studio (excerpts) | Vilém Tauský | | English |
| 196? | studio (excerpts) | J. Armitage Fuggle | Harrow Light Opera Company | English |
| 196? | studio (excerpts) | Paul Popescu | Romanian National Opera | Rumanian |
| 196? | studio | A Mikhailov | Moscow Operetta Theater | Russian |
| 1970 | radio | Adolphe Sibert (Siebert) | Orchestre Lyrique de l'O.R.T.F. | French |
| 1972 | studio | Herbert von Karajan | Berlin Philharmonic | |
| 1974 | live | Armando Krieger | | Spanish |
| 1976 | studio (excerpts) | Alexander Gibson | Scottish Philharmonia | English |
| 1977 | studio (excerpts) | Richard Bonynge | National Philharmonic Orchestra | English |
| 1978 | studio (excerpts) | Julius Rudel | New York City Opera | English |
| 1980 | studio | Heinz Wallberg | Munich Radio Orchestra | |
| 1982 | live | Rudolf Bibl | Vienna Volksoper | |
| 1986 | live | Baldo (Bruno) Podic | Lyric Opera of Chicago | English |
| 1986 | studio (excerpts) | Barry Wordsworth | New Sadler's Wells Opera Orchestra | English |
| 1989 | live (composite) | Yoko Matsuo | Tokyo Symphony Orchestra | Japanese |
| 198? | studio | Algis Ziuraidis | Large Symphony Orchestra of the USSR Radio and TV | Russian |
| 1993 | live (composite) | Franz Welser-Möst | London Philharmonic Orchestra | |
| 1994 | studio | John Eliot Gardiner | Vienna Philharmonic | |
| 1997 | | Helmut Froschauer | Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Köln | |
| 19?? | radio | Cesare Gallino | RAI Torino | Italian |
| 19?? | studio (excerpts) | ? Bessière | | French |
| 19?? | studio (excerpts) | Jean Doussard | | French |
| 19?? | studio (excerpts) | Jean Doussard | | French |
| 19?? | studio (excerpts) | Laszlo Makláry | Budapest Operetta Theatre | |
| 19?? | studio (excerpts) | Boris Mersson | Orchestre des Concerts de Paris | French |
| 19?? | | Hans Killer | | French |
| 2000 | live | Andrew Davis | Metropolitan Opera | English |
| 2004 | live | Kirill Petrenko | Metropolitan Opera | English |
| 2005 | studio | Rudolf Bibl | Orchestra of the Seefestspiele Mörbisch | |
| 2006 | live | Cyril Diederich | Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne | French |
| 2007 | live | Graeme Jenkins | Dallas Civic Opera | English |
| 2018 | live | Joana Mallwitz | Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester | |

## Video

| Date | Recording | Conductor | Cast: Hanna, Danilo | Orchestra |
| 1952 | film (in English) | Jay Blackton | Trudy Erwins, Fernando Lamas | |
| 1977 | live (in English) | Theo Alcántara | Beverly Sills, Alan Titus | San Diego Opera |
| 1983 | live (in French) | Armin Jordan | Anne Howells, Mikael Melbye | Orchestre de la Suisse Romande |
| 1986 | live | Christoph von Dohnányi | Anja Silja, Kurt Schreibmayer | La Monnaie |
| 1988 | live (in English) | Richard Bonynge | Joan Sutherland, Ronald Stevens | Sydney Elizabethan Orchestra |
| 1990 | live (in Italian) | Daniel Oren | Raina Kabaivanska, Mikael Melbye | Teatro dell'Opera di Roma |
| 1993 | live | Konstantin Schenk | Elisabeth Kales, Peter Edelmann | Philharmonie Bratislava |
| 1997 | live | Armin Jordan | Karita Mattila, Bo Skovhus | Opéra national de Paris |
| 2001 | live (in English) | Erich Kunzel | Yvonne Kenny, Bo Skovhus | San Francisco Opera |
| 2003 | live | Franz Welser-Möst | Dagmar Schellenberger, Rodney Gilfry | Zurich Opera House |
| 2005 | live | Rudolf Bibl | Margarita de Arellano, Mathias Hausmann | Orchester des Seefestspiele Mörbisch |
| 2007 | live | Manfred Honeck | Petra-Maria Schnitzer, Bo Skovhus | Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden |
| 2015 | live | Sir Andrew Davis | Renee Fleming, Nathan Gunn | Metropolitan Opera |