Falstaff

7.5
  • Genre: Music
  • Run time: 126 min
  • Premiere: 1993. January 1.

It is to composer and librettist Arrigo Boito and his constant pestering of the octogenarian Verdi that there remained within him one last great comedy fighting to get out that we owe this absolute miracle of an opera. Produced in 1893 as Verdi turned 80 there is much in this masterpiece that can be identified as a modernist neoclassical work. The use of short motifs instead of long arioso melodic lines, the spry and reduced orchestral textures and the lack of a single 'stand and deliver' dramatic declamatory aria all serve to make this more of a 20th century work than an example of 19th century late-Romanticism.

Discover

Mirella Freni

Alice Ford

Barbara Bonney

Nannetta

Paul Plishka

Sir John Falstaff

Marilyn Horne

Mistress Quickly

Piero De Palma

Dr. Cajus

Susan Graham

Meg Page

James Levine

Self - Conductor

Carole Wright

Mistress of the Inn

Tim Willson

The Innkeeper

Art

Franco Zeffirelli

Production Design

Franco Zeffirelli

Set Designer

James Levine

Art Direction

Crew

William Burdick

Choreographer

Ron Washburn

Technical Supervisor

Directing

Paul Mills

Stage Director

Brian Large

Director

Lighting

Gil Wechsler

Lighting Design

Production

Daniel Anker

Producer

Victoria Warivonchik

Production Secretary

Joseph Volpe

General Manager

Susan Erben

Production Assistant

Jessica Ruskin

Production Assistant

Sound

Giuseppe Verdi

Original Music Composer

Bill King

Sound Supervisor

James Levine

Conductor

Writing