Lyric comedy in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Arrigo Boito from the play The Merry Wives of Windsor and the play The History of Henry the Fourth by William Shakespeare
Produced by Fondazione Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova
Characters and interpreters:
Sir John Falstaff
Ambrogio Maestri
Ford
Ernesto Petti
Fenton
Galeano Salas
Dottor Caius
Blagoj Nacoski
Bardolfo
Cristiano Olivieri
Pistola
Luciano Leoni
Alice Ford
Erika Grimaldi
Nannetta
Caterina Sala
Mrs. Quickly
Sara Mingardo
Mrs. Meg Page
Paola Gardina
Concertmaster and conductor
Riccardo Minasi
Director
Damiano Michieletto
Scenes
Paolo Fantin
Costumes
Carla Teti
Lighting
Alessandro Carletti
Orchestra, coro e tecnici dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova
Choirmaster Claudio Marino Moretti
Falstaff is Giuseppe Verdi’s last opera, composed between 1890 and 1893 to a libretto by Arrigo Boito from William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. The opera comedy, in three acts, has only one precedent in the composer’s repertoire, Un giorno di regno, dating back to his younger years. With Falstaff Verdi, now in his eighties, secured one last great success in the opera buffa genre. The first performance was held at La Scala on 9 February 1983, the audience included the most famous composers and artists of the time, an exceptional cast performed on stage, and Falstaff immediately received widespread acclaim. The choice of Shakespeare’s subject was due to Boito, who first proposed the play to the composer. The collaboration between the two worked very well, so that Verdi had no objections to the first drafts of the libretto and began the composition with great enthusiasm. Compared to the original play, only the cuts necessary for the transposition were made. The plot revolves around the elderly protagonist, Sir John Falstaff, who attempts to seduce two wealthy ladies by correspondence, but they soon hatch a deception to expose the shameless man, involving the other characters as well. In the cheerful finale, everyone makes peace, and amidst the celebrations, the protagonist sings his famous hymn to comedy: «Tutto nel mondo è burla!». Despite its location within Verdi’s catalogue, the opera is an incredible example of stylistic innovation. With Falstaff, Verdi introduces a new liric language that seems to want to say goodbye definitively to 19th-century melodrama and pave the way for a new way of understanding opera.
