Rian Evans [The Guardian, 5 October 2005]

There's no particular shame in an opera company taking operetta and tarting it up. The best houses in the world do The Merry Widow, its tale of the attempt to save the crumbling state of Pontevedro by securing the wealth of a mega-rich widow has always been popular. Welsh National Opera mark the piece's centenary with this production, but the honour done to its composer, Franz Lehar, would have been rather greater had they concerned themselves less with the title role and more with ensuring good singers in the rest of the cast.