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| The Merry Widow | |
|---|---|
| Choreographer | Ronald Hynd |
| Music | Franz Lehár (adapted by John Lanchbery and Alan Abbott) |
| Based on | The Merry Widow operetta |
| Premiere | 13 November 1975 Palais Theatre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Original ballet company | The Australian Ballet |
| Setting | Paris |
| Created for | The Australian Ballet |
| Genre | Neoclassical ballet |
| Type | classical ballet |
The Merry Widow ballet is a 1975 adaptation of Franz Lehár's 1905 romantic operetta The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe).
John Lanchbery and Alan Abbott adapted the score of the operetta for ballet and retained the style of Lehár's orchestration. The arrangement includes the well-known tunes of the operetta: Vilja's song Ich bin eine anständige Frau and the Weibermarsch. This musical arrangement has been used for two ballets: the first was choreographed by Ronald Hynd for The Australian Ballet in 1975, while the second was choreographed by Veronica Paeper for CAPAB (since renamed the Cape Town City Ballet Company) in 1988.