Phil performs the role of Mr Kromow in The Merry Widow for Buxton International Festival 2026.

An Opera Holland Park, Scottish Opera and D’Oyly Carte Opera co-production, featuring the Buxton International Festival Orchestra.

Lehár’s delicious comedy of bankruptcy, infidelity, social climbing and the rekindling of romance between two old flames gets a twist of lemon in this production. Feisty, fabulous and filthy rich, Hanna Glawari is the merriest widow in New York, with a fortune in the bank, a lucrative lemon grove in Sicily, and a stampede of suitors vying for her attention. But money is power, and Mafioso Don Zeta recruits the many talents of wise guy Danilo, the happiest bachelor in New York, to ensure Hanna’s millions don’t end up married to the wrong man, with license to use any means necessary. Little does Zeta know, however, that Hanna and Danilo have quite the history…

John Savournin updates Lehár’s captivating will-they, won’t-they romance, with lavish designs by takis that evoke all the glamour of 1950s Manhattan. A new English translation by Savournin and David Eaton makes the opera’s wit sparkle. Iwan Davies conducts The Merry Widow with the Buxton International Festival Orchestra bringing this waltz-filled charmer to life in Buxton this summer. The cast is led by Paula Sides as Hanna Glawari and Dominic Sedgwick as Danilo, with Richard Burkhard as the powerful Don Zeta.

Libretto by Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based on L’attaché d’ambassade (The Embassy Attaché) by Henri Meilhac

Script by John Savournin & Lyrics by David Eaton

Sung in English with English side-titles

Duration: 2 hours and 40 minutes, including a 20-minute interval