Organization

Singer

Baritone

Nicola Alaimo

Sir John Falstaff

Simone Piazzola

Ford

Soprano

Ailyn Pérez

Mrs. Alice Ford

Contralto

Sara Mingardo

Mrs. Quickly

Tenor

Antonio Garés

Bardolph

Stage director

Sven-Eric Bechtolf

Conductor

John Eliot Gardiner

Lighting designer

Alex Brok

Costume designer

Kevin Pollard

Set designer

Julian Crouch

Video designer

Joshua Higgason

Chorus master

Lorenzo Fratini

Christian Collia

Doctor Caius

Mezzo-soprano

Caterina Piva

Mrs. Meg Page

Bass

Gianluca Buratto

Pistol

Xabier Anduaga

Fenton

Francesca Boncompagni

Nannette

Fondazione del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Others

Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Orchestra

Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Italian

Falstaff

Florence

Italy

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Sala Grande

“Falstaff” is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi’s production. At 1893 “Falstaff” made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala accompanied by a great success. “Falstaff’s” score abounds in musical experimentation like the pseudo-symphonic sonata-form that opens the first act, the fugue buffa that closes the opera.

“Falstaff” is the work of an amusing and amused Verdi. After all, as the final theme reads: “Everything in the world is a joke. Man was born a joker”. In this way John Eliot Gardiner together with stage director Sven-Eric Bechtolf are congenial to this witty opera after Shakespeare.

Falstaff Verdi

Public

English

Approved

All his life Verdi had pursued the dream of writing a comic opera without ever finding the appropriate subject. But on the threshold of eighty years here comes true that dream with Falstaff, born from the renewed collaboration with the now irreplaceable Arrigo Boito. If we exclude Un giorno di regno, a resounding youth fiasco of 1840, Falstaff is the only comic opera, as well as the last opera, of Verdi's production. And to think that Verdi's love for Shakespeare was long-standing and The Merry Wives of Windsor, source of Boito's libretto along with the first two parts of Henry IV, one of his favorite comedies. It was therefore Boito's insistence that spurred the old master to get back into the game with a "lyrical comedy that does not resemble any other" as Verdi said. On February 9, 1893 Falstaff made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala accompanied by a great success. After more than fifty years spent transferring dramas and torments of the human soul into music, Verdi greeted the world of opera with the sly smile of those who have experienced everything to the highest degree and still continue to do so. And Falstaff's score abounds in musical experimentation. Just think of the pseudo-symphonic sonata-form that opens the first act, the comic fugue that closes the work, a playful page of admirable collective virtuosity, the ductile and flowing declaimed that suddenly open up to moments of wide and unexpected cantability. Falstaff is the work of a funny and amused Verdi. After all, as the ending theme says: "Everything in the world is a joke. The man was born a prankster."

Falstaff by Verdi, From (2021/2021), Directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf,, Conductor John Eliot Gardiner, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence, Italy

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues