Falstaff

Overview

It is to composer and librettist Arrigo Boito and his constant pestering of the octogenarian Verdi that there remained within him one last great comedy fighting to get out that we owe this absolute miracle of an opera. Produced in 1893 as Verdi turned 80 there is much in this masterpiece that can be identified as a modernist neoclassical work. The use of short motifs instead of long arioso melodic lines, the spry and reduced orchestral textures and the lack of a single 'stand and deliver' dramatic declamatory aria all serve to make this more of a 20th century work than an example of 19th century late-Romanticism.

Cast

Mirella Freni

Alice Ford

N/A

Barbara Bonney

Nannetta

Paul Plishka

Sir John Falstaff

N/A

Bruno Pola

Ford

Marilyn Horne

Mistress Quickly

Frank Lopardo

Fenton

N/A

Piero De Palma

Dr. Cajus

Anthony Laciura

Bardolfo

James Courtney

Pistola

Susan Graham

Meg Page

James Levine

Self - Conductor

N/A

Carole Wright

Mistress of the Inn