Falstaff by Verdi, From (2023/2023), Directed by Daniel Benoin,, Conductor Daniele Callegari, Anthéa, Antibes, France

Without having the means, Sir John Falstaff leads the life of a great lord at the Auberge de la Garretière. But the bill gets longer and, to pay his debts, the knight thinks it a good idea to seduce two rich bourgeois. He sends them a love letter as ridiculous as it is inflamed, but his potential victims are quick to discover the deception and decide to take revenge. Falstaff makes a fool of himself by falling into all the traps set for him by these much more cunning women .. But probably because, written at almost 80 years old, this opera, the last of the master of Milan, is haunted by the question of death. The face of death under the mask of the jester, it is this reading that favors the staging of Daniel Benoin. He shifts the Shakespearian plot in time and space to bring it closer to us and make the idea of ​​finitude more perceptible.