Falstaff
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.
Cast
Mirella Freni
as Alice Ford
Barbara Bonney
as Nannetta
Paul Plishka
as Sir John Falstaff
Bruno Pola
as Ford
Marilyn Horne
as Mistress Quickly
Frank Lopardo
as Fenton
Piero De Palma
as Dr. Cajus
Anthony Laciura
as Bardolfo
James Courtney
as Pistola
Susan Graham
as Meg Page
