Falstaff

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Image courtesy of Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Year 1893: Verdi, at the age of 80, attended the premiere of Falstaff at La Scala. As a major event, the audience included Princess Letizia Bonaparte and the Italian opera composers Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini. The composer himself took the stage to greet the audience, receiving ovations at the end of each act.

Verdi, with an extensive and exceptional career spanning nearly two-thirds of the 19th century, wanted to bid farewell with a great comic work: because his only previous attempt, Un giorno di regno (1840), was a major failure, as during the same period, his wife and two of his children passed away—circumstances hardly conducive to writing a comedy.

Verdi was a devotee of William Shakespeare's theatrical works. As a result of this admiration, he wrote two great masterpieces: Macbeth (1847) and Otello (1887), choosing Falstaff as the text for his next opera.

Only a genius of Giuseppe Verdi’s stature could bid farewell to lyric opera by exclaiming with sarcasm and wit: “Tutto nel mondo è burla” ("Everything in the world is a joke"): the final morality of this bittersweet comedy in which the composer displayed extraordinary vitality and surprising modernity in its musical structure.

The Boito-Verdi duo brings back an aging, hedonistic, and somewhat cowardly Sir John Falstaff, a former comrade-in-arms of the future Henry V of England, now surrendered to drinking, gluttony, lust, and bragging. Worn out, short of money, grotesque, and conceited, he nevertheless possesses a cynical wit and intelligence that grant him an irresistible charm. A caricature of Falstaff himself, he acts like a thief ready to deceive the weak and take advantage of the poor. He falls in love with Alice Ford and Meg Page, two young married women who enjoy fueling the old knight's desires to ridicule his attempts at seduction.

Laurent Pelly’s staging, set in the 20th century, ends with a mirror reflecting the audience itself as the final recipient of the grand fugue, inviting us to laugh at ourselves. With uncommon theatrical agility and unpredictable dramatic gestures, the production cleverly showcases both amusing and melancholic scenes.

The celebrated baritones Luca Salsi and Ambrogio Maestri will play the role of Falstaff, the autumnal knight cheerfully tormented by a trio of intelligent women, supported by a brilliant cast including Roberta Mantega (Alice), Daniela Barcellona (Mrs. Quickly), Serena Sáenz (Nanetta), Santiago Ballerini (Fenton), and Mattia Olivieri (Ford). An unforgettable score will be in the hands of Josep Pons, bidding farewell to the Liceu audience as principal conductor after 12 wonderful years in the role.

Falstaff, the last laugh of the old Verdi. A clumsy character of profound humanity, possessing the wisdom of those who have come to understand that many things we deem important are, in fact, not. We are all Falstaff! “We don’t want Falstaff to die. And, of course, he won’t. He is life itself.” –Harold Bloom

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