ABSTRACT
If there is any one show that could be said to have established the global reputation of the French capital as a state of mind which goes to the head like champagne it must be The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár. The operetta presented the city as a whirl of revelry in glamorous nightspots, further enhancing its reputation for elegance, romance and high spirits.
The chapter charts the victorious journey of The Merry Widow around the world, compare the different adaptations, proceeding from Vienna’s Die Lustige Witwe and focusing on the London version, but also surveying its French matrix: Henri Meilhac’s comedy L’Attaché d’Amabassade. It then highlights the operetta’s international reception, especially in the English-speaking world, where it was the very first production to make extensive use of merchandising, most famously with the ‘Merry Widow Hat’. Finally, the text shows how the song ‘Off to Maxim’s’ turned the restaurant Maxim’s into a household name even to those who had never travelled to Paris.
