On Sunday , October 22, from 7 p.m., the opera company will present the premiere of the comic opera Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi based on W. Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor, the libretto for the opera was written by Arrigo Boito. (The theme of the Merry Wives was also used by the composers Nicolai and Salieri for the composition of the opera.)
Queen Elizabeth I herself is said to have been responsible for the creation of Shakespeare's comedy, who wished to see Falstaff, the comic character of the debauched old nobleman from the historical plays about Henry IV, as an aging man ridiculously in love. It is said that the writer had to write the play in just a fortnight. (This is why he apparently used not only the knights, but also other characters from the second part of Henry IV , which was currently in progress.) He set the story in his present day, in the small town of Windsor near London. The main plot of the work is the attempt of the scheming knight Falstaff to seduce two honorable and wealthy ladies from Windsor. However, they come to an agreement and set a well-thought-out trap for Falstaff. Other characters (e.g. husbands of mistresses) get involved in the plot of this "disguise" comedy, and scenes with a young couple in love create a counterbalance to the comic situations.
Falstaff is Verdi's only performed comic opera (he wrote one more , One Day by the King , early in his career , but it was not successful). This work deviates from the series of his operas not only in terms of subject matter, but also in new compositional ideas, where the author moves from a small drawing to a large orchestral sound with an emphasis on brass and string instruments. The music supports lyricism as well as parody and humor of individual situations. The most famous - and also the most musically difficult - are the ensemble scenes, e.g. the final fugue Tutto nel mondo e burla... ( Everything in the world is a farce...). Verdi's last opera was premiered at Milan's Teatro alla Scala on February 9, 1893 - conducted by E. Mascheroni, directed by G. Verdi, and the title role was played by the French baritone V. Maurel. (Critics from all over the world gathered for the premiere, as well as the young opera composers Mascagni and Puccini.) In the same year, the opera appeared in Vienna (May 21), also in Prague's National Theater (November 16), translated by VJ Novotný - the title role was sung by B. Benoni, conducted by M. Anger. In the following year, 1894, the opera was performed in Hamburg - conducted by G. Mahler and in London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in an English translation. In 1895, the opera was performed for the first time in the USA at the New York Metropolitan Opera. Falstaff is currently one of the world's most performed operas.
