Falstaff (opera)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Falstaff
Opera by Giuseppe Verdi

Lucien Fugre in the title role, 1894

Librettist

Arrigo Boito

Language

Italian

Based on The Merry Wives of Windsor and

scenes from Henry IV, parts 1 and
2
by Shakespeare
Premiere

9 February 1893

La Scala in Milan
Falstaff (Italian pronunciation: [falstaf]) is an opera in three acts by the
Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (18131901). The libretto was adapted
by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and
scenes from Henry IV, parts 1 and 2. The work premiered on 9 February
1893 at La Scala, Milan.
Verdi wrote Falstaff, which was the last of his 28 operas, as he was
approaching the age of 80. It was his second comedy, and his third work
based on a Shakespeare play, following Macbeth and Otello. The plot
revolves around the thwarted, sometimes farcical, efforts of the fat
knight, Sir John Falstaff, to seduce two married women to gain access to
their husbands' wealth.
Verdi was concerned about working on a new opera at his advanced age,
but he yearned to write a comic work and was pleased with Boito's draft
libretto. It took the collaborators three years from mid-1889 to complete.
Although the prospect of a new opera from Verdi aroused immense interest
in Italy and around the world, Falstaff did not prove to be as popular as
earlier works in the composer's canon. After the initial performances in Italy,
other European countries and the US, the work was neglected until the
conductor Arturo Toscanini insisted on its revival at La Scala and
the Metropolitan Opera in New York from the late 1890s into the next
century. Some felt that the piece suffered from a lack of the full-blooded
melodies of the best of Verdi's previous operas, a view strongly
contradicted by Toscanini. Conductors of the generation after Toscanini to
champion the work included Herbert von Karajan,Georg Solti and Leonard
Bernstein. The work is now part of the regular operatic repertory.
Verdi made numerous changes to the music after the first performance,
and editors have found difficulty in agreeing on a definitive score. The work
was first recorded in 1932 and has subsequently received many studio and
live recordings. Singers closely associated with the title role have
included Victor Maurel (the first Falstaff), Mariano Stabile, Giuseppe
Valdengo, Tito Gobbi, Geraint Evans and Bryn Terfel.
Contents
[hide]
1Composition history

o 1.1Conception
o 1.2Composition
2Performance history
o 2.1Premieres
o 2.2Neglect
o 2.3Re-emergence
3Roles
4Synopsis
o 4.1Act 1
o 4.2Act 2
o 4.3Act 3
5Music and drama
6Recordings
7Notes, references and sources
8Further reading
9External links
Composition history[edit]
Conception[edit]
By 1889 Verdi had been an opera composer for more than fifty years. He
had written 27 operas, of which only one was a comedy, his second
work, Un giorno di regno, staged unsuccessfully in 1840.[1] His fellow
composer Rossini commented that he admired Verdi greatly, but thought
him incapable of writing a comedy. Verdi disagreed and said that he longed
to write another light-hearted opera, but nobody would give him the chance.

[2]

He had included moments of comedy even in his tragic operas, for

example in Un ballo in maschera and La forza del destino.[3]

Boito in 1893
For a comic subject Verdi considered Cervantes's Don Quixote and plays
by Goldoni, Molire and Labiche, but found none of them wholly suitable.
[2]
The singer Victor Maurel sent him a French libretto based on
Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Verdi liked it, but replied that "to
deal with it properly you need a Rossini or a Donizetti".[n 1] Following the
success of Otello in 1887 he commented, "After having relentlessly
massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a
little." He confided his ambition to the librettist of Otello, Arrigo Boito.[2]Boito
said nothing at the time, but he secretly began work on a libretto based
on The Merry Wives of Windsor with additional material taken fromHenry
IV, parts 1 and 2.[2] Many composers had set the play to music, with little
success, among them Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1796), Antonio
Salieri (1799), Michael William Balfe (1835) and Adolphe Adam (1856).
[6]
The first version to secure a place in the operatic repertoire was Otto
Nicolai's The Merry Wives of Windsor in 1849, but its success was largely
confined to German opera houses.[7]
Boito was doubly pleased with The Merry Wives as a plot. Not only was it
Shakespearian, it was based in part on Trecento Italian works Il
Pecorone by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, and Boccaccio's Decameron. Boito
adopted a deliberately archaic form of Italian to "lead Shakespeare's farce
back to its clear Tuscan source", as he put it.[8] He trimmed the plot, halved
the number of characters in the play,[n 2] and gave the character
of Falstaff more depth by incorporating dozens of passages from Henry IV.
[8][n 3]

Verdi received the draft libretto a few weeks later, by early July 1889, at a
time when his interest had been piqued by reading Shakespeare's play:
"Benissimo! Benissimo! ... No one could have done better than you", he

wrote back.[13] Like Boito, Verdi loved and revered Shakespeare. The
composer did not speak English, but he owned and frequently re-read
Shakespeare's plays in Italian translations by Carlo Rusconi and Giulio
Carcano, which he kept by his bedside.[14][n 4] He had earlier set operatic
adaptations of Shakespeare's Macbeth (in 1847) and Othello (in 1887) and
had considered King Lear as a subject; Boito had suggested Antony and
Cleopatra.[15]
What a joy! To be able to say to the Audience: "WE ARE HERE AGAIN!!
COME AND SEE US!!"

Verdi to Boito, 8 July 1889[13]

Verdi still had doubts, and on the next day sent another letter to Boito
expressing his concerns. He wrote of "the large number of years" in his
age, his health (which he admitted was still good) and his ability to
complete the project: "if I were not to finish the music?" He said that the
project could all be a waste of the younger man's time and distract Boito
from completing his own new opera (which became Nerone).[13] Yet, as his
biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz notes, "Verdi could not hide his delight
at the idea of writing another opera". On 10 July 1889 he wrote again:
Amen; so be it! So let's do Falstaff! For now, let's not think of obstacles, of
age, of illnesses! I also want to keep the deepest secrecy: a word that I
underline three times to you that no one must know anything about it! [He
notes that his wife will know about it, but assures Boito that she can keep a
secret.] Anyway, if you are in the mood, then start to write. [16]
Composition[edit]
Boito's original sketch is lost, but surviving correspondence shows that the
finished opera is not greatly different from his first thoughts. The major
differences were that an act 2 monologue for Ford was moved from scene
2 to scene 1, and that the last act originally ended with the marriage of the
lovers rather than with the lively vocal and orchestralfugue, which was
Verdi's idea.[17] He wrote to Boito in August 1889 telling him that he was
writing a fugue: "Yes, Sir! A fugue ... and a buffa fugue", which "could
probably be fitted in".[18]

Falstaff, by Charles Robert Leslie

Verdi accepted the need to trim Shakespeare's plot to keep the opera
within an acceptable length. He was sorry, nonetheless, to see the loss of
Falstaff's second humiliation, dressed up as the Wise Woman
of Brentford to escape from Ford.[n 5] He wrote of his desire to do justice to
Shakespeare: "To sketch the characters in a few strokes, to weave the plot,
to extract all the juice from that enormous Shakespearian orange".
[20]
Shortly after the premiere an English critic, R A Streatfeild, remarked on
how Verdi succeeded:
The leading note of [Falstaff]'s character is sublime self-conceit. If his belief
in himself were shattered, he would be merely a vulgar sensualist and
debauchee. As it is, he is a hero. For one terrible moment in the last act his
self-satisfaction wavers. He looks round and sees every one laughing at
him. Can it be that he has been made a fool of? But no, he puts the horrible
suggestion from him, and in a flash is himself again. "Son io," he exclaims
with a triumphant inspiration, "che vi fa scaltri. L'arguzia mia crea l'arguzia
degli altri." ["I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other
men", a line from Henry IV part 2.] Verdi has caught this touch and indeed a
hundred others throughout the opera with astonishing truth and delicacy.[21]
In November Boito took the completed first act to Verdi at Sant'Agata,
along with the second act, which was still under construction: "That act has
the devil on its back; and when you touch it, it burns", Boito complained.
[22]
They worked on the opera for a week, then Verdi and his
wife Giuseppina Strepponi went to Genoa. No more work was done for
some time.[23]

The writer Russ McDonald observes that a letter from Boito to Verdi
touches on the musical techniques used in the opera he wrote of how to
portray the characters Nannetta and Fenton: "I can't quite explain it: I would
like as one sprinkles sugar on a tart to sprinkle the whole comedy with that
happy love without concentrating it at any one point." [24]
The first act was completed by March 1890;[25] the rest of the opera was not
composed in chronological order, as had been Verdi's usual practice. The
musicologist Roger Parkercomments that this piecemeal approach may
have been "an indication of the relative independence of individual scenes".
[26]
Progress was slow, with composition "carried out in short bursts of
activity interspersed with long fallow periods" partly caused by the
composer's depression. Verdi was weighed down by the fear of being
unable to complete the score, and also by the deaths and impending
deaths of close friends, including the conductors Franco
Faccio and Emanuele Muzio.[26] There was no pressure on the composer to
hurry. As he observed at the time, he was not working on a commission
from a particular opera house, as he had in the past, but was composing
for his own pleasure: "in writing Falstaff, I haven't thought about either
theatres or singers".[26] He reiterated this idea in December 1890, a time
when his spirits were very low after Muzio's death that November: "Will I
finish it [Falstaff]? Or will I not finish it? Who knows! I am writing without
any aim, without a goal, just to pass a few hours of the day". [27] By early
1891 he was declaring that he could not finish the work that year, but in
May he expressed some small optimism, which by mid-June, had turned
into:
The Big Belly ["pancione", the name given to the opera before the
composition of Falstaff became public knowledge] is on the road to
madness. There are some days when he does not move, he sleeps, and is
in a bad humour. At other times he shouts, runs, jumps, and tears the place
apart; I let him act up a bit, but if he goes on like this, I will put him in a
muzzle and straightjacket.[28]

Victor Maurel as Iago in Boito and Verdi's Otello

Boito was overjoyed, and Verdi reported that he was still working on the
opera. The two men met in October or November 1891, [29] after which the
Verdis were in Genoa for the winter. They were both taken ill there, and two
months of work were lost. By mid-April 1892 the scoring of the first act was
complete and by JuneJuly Verdi was considering potential singers for
roles in Falstaff. For the title role he wanted Victor Maurel, thebaritone who
had sung Iago in Otello, but at first the singer sought contractual terms that
Verdi found unacceptable: "His demands were so outrageous, exorbitant,
[and] incredible that there was nothing else to do but stop the entire
project".[30] Eventually they reached agreement and Maurel was cast. [n 6]
By September Verdi had agreed in a letter to his publisher Casa
Ricordi that La Scala could present the premiere during the 189293
season, but that he would retain control over every aspect of the
production. An early February date was mentioned along with the demand
that the house would be available exclusively after 2 January 1893 and
that, even after the dress rehearsal, he could withdraw the opera: "I will
leave the theatre, and [Ricordi] will have to take the score away". [32] The
public learned of the new opera towards the end of 1892, and intense
interest was aroused, increased rather than diminished by the secrecy with
which Verdi surrounded the preparations; rehearsals were in private, and
the press was kept at arm's length.[33] Apart from Verdi's outrage at the way
that La Scala announced the season's programme on 7 December "either
a revival of Tannhuser or Falstaff" things went smoothly in January 1893
up to the premiere performance on 9 February.[34]
Performance history[edit]

Verdi directing the rehearsals ofFalstaff

Premieres[edit]
The first performance of Falstaff was at La Scala in Milan on 9 February
1893, nearly six years after Verdi's previous premiere. For the first night,
official ticket prices were thirty times greater than usual. [35][n 7] Royalty,
aristocracy, critics and leading figures from the arts all over Europe were
present.[35] The performance was a huge success under the baton
of Edoardo Mascheroni; numbers were encored, and at the end the
applause for Verdi and the cast lasted an hour.[n 8] That was followed by a
tumultuous welcome when the composer, his wife and Boito arrived at the
Grand Hotel de Milan.[35]
Over the next two months the work was given twenty-two performances in
Milan and then taken by the original company, led by Maurel, to Genoa,
Rome, Venice, Trieste, Vienna and, without Maurel, to Berlin. [37] Verdi and
his wife left Milan on 2 March; Ricordi encouraged the composer to go to
the planned Rome performance of 14 April, to maintain the momentum and
excitement that the opera had generated. The Verdis, along with Boito and
Giulio Ricordi, attended together with King Umberto I and other major royal
and political figures of the day. The king introduced Verdi to the audience
from the Royal Box to great acclaim, "a national recognition and apotheosis
of Verdi that had never been tendered him before", notes Phillips-Matz. [38]
During these early performances Verdi made substantial changes to the
score. For some of these he altered his manuscript, but for others
musicologists have had to rely on the numerous full and piano scores put

out by Ricordi.[39] Further changes were made for the Paris premiere in
1894, which are also inadequately documented. Ricordi attempted to keep
up with the changes, issuing new edition after new edition, but the
orchestral and piano scores were often mutually contradictory.[39] The Verdi
scholar James Hepokoski considers that a definitive score of the opera is
impossible, leaving companies and conductors to choose between a variety
of options.[39] In a 2013 study Philip Gossett disagrees, believing that the
autograph is essentially a reliable source, augmented by contemporary
Ricordi editions for the few passages that Verdi omitted to amend in his
own score.[40]

Poster for original cast performance, Trieste, 1894

The first performances outside the Kingdom of Italy were in Trieste and
Vienna, in May 1893.[41] The work was given in the Americas and across
Europe. Antonio Scotti played the title role in Buenos Aires in July
1893; Gustav Mahler conducted the opera in Hamburg in January 1894; a
Russian translation was presented in St Petersburg in the same month.
[42]
Paris was regarded by many as the operatic capital of Europe, and for
the production there in April 1894 Boito, who was fluent in French, made
his own translation with the help of the Parisian poet Paul Solanges. [42]This
translation, approved by Verdi, is quite free in its rendering of Boito's
original Italian text. Boito was content to delegate the English and German
translations to William Beatty Kingston and Max Kalbeck respectively.
[42]
The London premiere, sung in Italian, was at Covent Garden on 19 May
1894. The conductor was Mancinelli, and Zilli and Pini Corsi repeated their
original roles. Falstaff was sung by Arturo Pessina; Maurel played the role
at Covent Garden the following season.[43] On 4 February 1895 the work
was first presented at the Metropolitan Opera, New York;[44] Mancinelli
conducted and the cast included Maurel as Falstaff, Emma Eames as

Alice, Zlie de Lussan as Nannetta and Sofia Scalchi as Mistress Quickly.

[45]

Neglect[edit]

Bohumil Benoni as Falstaff, 1894

After the initial excitement, audiences quickly diminished. Operagoers were
nonplussed by the absence of big traditional arias and choruses. A
contemporary critic summed it up: "'Is this our Verdi?' they asked
themselves. 'But where is the motive; where are the broad melodies ...
where are the usual ensembles; the finales?'"[41] By the time of Verdi's
death in 1901 the work had fallen out of the international repertoire. The
rising young conductor Arturo Toscanini was a strong advocate of the work,
and did much to save it from neglect. As musical director of La Scala (from
1898) and the Metropolitan Opera (from 1908), he
programmed Falstaff from the start of his tenure. Richard Aldrich, music
critic of The New York Times, wrote that Toscanini's revival "ought to be
marked in red letters in the record of the season. Falstaff, which was first
produced here on Feb. 4. 1895, has not been given since the following
season, and was heard in these two seasons only half a dozen times in
all."[46] Aldrich added that though the general public might have had difficulty
with the work, "to connoisseurs it was an unending delight". [46]
In Britain, as in continental Europe and the US, the work fell out of the
repertoire. Sir Thomas Beecham revived it in 1919, and recalling in his
memoirs that the public had stayed away he commented:
I have often been asked why I think Falstaff is not more of a box-office
attraction, and I do not think the answer is far to seek. Let it be admitted
that there are fragments of melody as exquisite and haunting as anything

that Verdi has written elsewhere, such as the duet of Nanetta and Fenton in
the first act and the song of Fenton at the beginning of the final scene,
which have something of the lingering beauty of an Indian summer. But in
comparison with every other work of the composer, it is wanting in tunes of
a broad and impressive character, and one or two of the type of "O Mia
Regina", "Ritorna Vincitor", or "Ora per sempre addio" might have helped
the situation.[47]
Toscanini recognised that this was the view of many, but he believed the
work to be Verdi's greatest opera; he said, "I believe it will take years and
years before the general public understand this masterpiece, but when they
really know it they will run to hear it like they do now for Rigoletto and La
traviata."[48]
Re-emergence[edit]

The conductor Arturo Toscanini, who strove to return Falstaff to the regular
repertory
Toscanini returned to La Scala in 1921 and remained in charge there until
1929, presenting Falstaff in every season. He took the work to Germany
and Austria in the late 1920s and the 1930s, conducting it in Vienna, Berlin
and at three successive Salzburg Festivals. Among those inspired by
Toscanini's performances were Herbert von Karajan and Georg Solti, who
were among his rptiteurs at Salzburg. Toscanini's younger
colleague Tullio Serafin continued to present the work in Germany and
Austria after Toscanini refused to perform there because of his loathing of
the Nazi regime.[49]
When Karajan was in a position to do so he added Falstaff to the repertoire
of his opera company at Aachen in 1941,[49] and he remained a proponent
of the work for the rest of his career, presenting it frequently in Vienna,
Salzburg and elsewhere, and making audio and video recordings of it.

[50]

Solti also became closely associated with Falstaff, as did Carlo Maria
Giulini; they both conducted many performances of the work in mainland
Europe, Britain and the US and made several recordings. [51] Leonard
Bernstein conducted the work at the Met and the Vienna State Opera, and
on record.[52] The advocacy of these and later conductors has given the
work an assured place in the modern repertoire. [n 9]
Among revivals in the 1950s and later, Hepokoski singles out as particularly
notable the Glyndebourne productions with Fernando Corena and
later Geraint Evans in the title role; three different stagings by Franco
Zeffirelli, for the Holland Festival (1956), Covent Garden (1961) and the
Metropolitan Opera (1964); and Luchino Visconti's 1966 version in Vienna.
[54]
A 1982 production by Ronald Eyre, more reflective and melancholy than
usual, was staged in Los Angeles, London and Florence; Renato
Bruson was Falstaff and Giulini conducted.[55] Among more recent players
of the title role Bryn Terfel has taken the part at Covent Garden in 1999, in
a production by Graham Vick, conducted by Bernard Haitink.[56] and at the
Metropolitan Opera in a revival of the Zeffirelli production, conducted
by James Levine in 2006.[57]
Although Falstaff has become a regular repertoire work there nonetheless
remains a view expressed by John von Rhein in The Chicago Tribune in
1985: "Falstaff probably always will fall into the category of 'connoisseur's
opera' rather than taking its place as a popular favorite on the order of La
Traviata or Aida."[58] As noted by Operabase, during the 201213 season,
the work appeared at number 32 of the 50 operas most often performed; in
the 200910 season it ranked at number 24. [59]
Roles[edit]

Role

Voice
type

Premiere cast, 9 February

1893[60]
(Conductor: Edoardo
Mascheroni)[61]

Sir John Falstaff, a fat knight

baritone

Victor Maurel

Ford, a wealthy man

baritone

Antonio Pini-Corsi

Alice Ford, his wife

soprano

Emma Zilli

Nannetta, their daughter

soprano

Adelina Stehle

Meg Page

mezzosoprano

Virginia Guerrini

Mistress Quickly

contralto

Giuseppina Pasqua

Fenton, one of Nannetta's suitors

tenor

Edoardo Garbin

Dr Caius

tenor

Giovanni Paroli

Bardolfo, a follower of Falstaff

tenor

Paolo Pelagalli-Rossetti

Pistola, a follower of Falstaff

bass

Vittorio Arimondi

Mine Host of the Garter Inn

Silent

Attilio Pulcini

Robin, Falstaff's page

Silent

Chorus of townspeople, Ford's

servants, and masqueraders dressed as
fairies etc.
Synopsis[edit]
Time: The reign of Henry IV, 1399 to 1413[62]
Place: Windsor, England
Act 1[edit]

A room at the Garter Inn

Falstaff and his servants, Bardolfo and Pistola,
are drinking at the inn. Dr Caius bursts in and
accuses Falstaff of burgling his house and
Bardolfo of picking his pocket. He is ejected.
Falstaff hands a letter to each of his servants
for delivery to Alice Ford and Meg Page, two
wealthy married women. In these two identical
letters, Falstaff professes his love for each of
the women, although it is access to their
husbands' money that he chiefly covets.
Bardolfo and Pistola refuse, claiming that
honour prevents them from obeying him.
Falstaff dispatches his page, Robin, to deliver
the letters. Falstaff delivers a tirade at his
rebellious followers (L'onore! Ladri...! / "Honour!
You rogues...!") telling them that honour is a
mere word and is of no practical value. He
chases them out of his sight.
Ford's garden
Alice and Meg have received Falstaff's letters.
They compare them, see that they are identical
and, together with Mistress Quickly and
Nannetta Ford, resolve to punish Falstaff.
Meanwhile, Ford has been warned of the letters
by Bardolfo and Pistola. All three are thirsty for
revenge and are supported by Dr Caius and
Fenton, a young gentleman. To Ford's
disapproval, Fenton is in love with Nannetta.
Finding a moment to be alone, the young lovers
exchange banter. They are interrupted by the
return of Alice, Meg and Mistress Quickly. The
act ends with an ensemble in which the women
and the men separately plan revenge on
Falstaff.
Act 2[edit]
A room at the Garter Inn

Falstaff is alone at the inn. Bardolfo and Pistola,

now in the pay of Ford, enter and pretend to
beg for forgiveness for past transgressions.
They announce to their master the arrival of
Mistress Quickly, who delivers an invitation to
go to Alice's house that afternoon between the
hours of two and three. She also delivers an
answer from Meg Page and assures Falstaff
that neither is aware of the other's letter.
Falstaff celebrates his potential success ("Va,
vecchio John" / "Go, old Jack, go your own
way"). Ford arrives, masquerading as "Signor
Fontana", supposedly an admirer of Alice; he
offers money to the fat knight to seduce her.
Falstaff is puzzled at the request, and "Fontana"
explains that if Alice succumbs to Falstaff, it will
then be easier for Fontana to overcome her
virtuous scruples. Falstaff agrees with pleasure
and reveals that he already has a rendezvous
arranged with Alice for two o'clock the hour
when Ford is always absent from home. Falstaff
goes off to change into his best clothes; Ford is
consumed with jealousy ( sogno o realt? / "Is
it a dream or reality?"). When Falstaff returns in
his finery, they leave together with elaborate
displays of mutual courtesy.
Engraving by Ettore Tito of act 2, scene 2,
from the original production. Ford and the
servants creep towards Fenton and
Nannetta, who they think are Falstaff and
Alice, behind the screen, while the women
stifle Falstaff in the laundry basket.
A room in Ford's house
The three women plot their strategy ("Gaie
Comari di Windsor" / "Merry wives of Windsor,
the time has come!"). They are in high spirits,
but Alice notices that Nannetta is not. This is
because Ford plans to marry her to Dr Caius, a

man old enough to be her grandfather; the

women reassure her that they will prevent it.
Mistress Quickly announces Falstaff's arrival,
and Mistress Ford has a large laundry basket
and a screen placed in readiness. Falstaff's
attempts to seduce Alice with tales of his past
glory ("Quand'ero paggio del Duca di Norfolk" /
"When I was page to the Duke of Norfolk I was
slender") are cut short, as Mistress Quickly
reports the impending arrival of Ford with a
retinue of henchmen to catch his wife's lover.
Falstaff hides first behind the screen, and then
the women hide him in the laundry basket. In
the meantime Fenton and Nannetta hide behind
the screen. The men hear the sound of a kiss
behind it. They assume it is Falstaff with Alice,
but instead they find the young lovers. Ford
orders Fenton to leave. Inside the hamper
Falstaff is almost suffocating. While the men
resume the search of the house Alice orders
her servants to throw the laundry basket
through the window into the River Thames,
where Falstaff endures the jeers of the crowd.
Act 3[edit]
Before the inn
Falstaff glumly curses the sorry state of the
world. Some mulled wine soon improves his
mood. Mistress Quickly arrives and delivers
another invitation to meet Alice. Falstaff at first
wants nothing to do with it, but she persuades
him. He is to meet Alice at midnight at Herne's
Oak in Windsor Great Park dressed up
as Herne the Hunter. He and Mistress Quickly
go inside the inn. Ford has realised his error in
suspecting his wife, and they and their allies
have been watching secretly. They now concoct
a plan for Falstaff's punishment: dressed as
supernatural creatures, they will ambush and
torment him at midnight. Ford privately

proposes a separate plot to Caius: Nannetta will

be disguised as Queen of the Fairies, Caius will
wear a monk's costume, and Ford will join the
two of them with a nuptial blessing. Mistress
Quickly overhears and quietly vows to thwart
Ford's scheme.
Herne's Oak in Windsor Park on a moonlit
midnight
Fenton arrives at the oak tree and sings of his
happiness ("Dal labbro il canto estasiato vola" /
"From my lips, a song of ecstasy flies") ending
with "Lips that are kissed lose none of their
allure." Nannetta enters to finish the line with
"Indeed, they renew it, like the moon." The
women arrive and disguise Fenton as a monk,
telling him that they have arranged to spoil
Ford's and Caius's plans. Nannetta, as the
Fairy Queen, instructs her helpers ("Sul fil d'un
soffio etesio" / "On the breath of a fragrant
breeze, fly, nimble spirits") before all the
characters arrive on the scene. Falstaff's
attempted love scene with Alice is interrupted
by the announcement that witches are
approaching, and the men, disguised as elves
and fairies, soundly thrash Falstaff. At length he
recognises Bardolfo in disguise. The joke is
over, and Falstaff acknowledges that he has
received his due. Ford announces that a
wedding shall ensue. Caius and the Queen of
the Fairies enter. A second couple, also in
masquerade, ask Ford to deliver the same
blessing for them as well. Ford conducts the
double ceremony. Caius finds that instead of
Nannetta, his bride is the disguised Bardolfo,
and Ford has unwittingly blessed the marriage
of Fenton and Nannetta. Ford accepts the fait
accompli with good grace. Falstaff, pleased to
find himself not the only dupe, proclaims in a
fugue, which the entire company sings, that all

the world is folly, and all are figures of fun (Tutto

nel mondo burla... Tutti gabbati! / "Everything
in the world is a jest...").
Music and drama[edit]
Verdi scored Falstaff for 3 flutes (third
doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn,
2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns,
3 trumpets, 4 trombones, timpani, percussion
(triangle, cymbals, bass drum), harp,
and strings. In addition, a guitar, natural horn,
and bell are heard from offstage.[63] Unlike most
of Verdi's earlier operatic
scores, Falstaff isthrough-composed. No list of
numbers is printed in the published full score.
[63]
The score differs from much of Verdi's earlier
work by having no overture: there are seven
bars for the orchestra before the first voice (Dr
Caius) enters.[64] The critic Rodney
Milnes comments that "enjoyment shines
from every bar in its irresistible forward impulse,
its effortless melody, its rhythmic vitality, and
sureness of dramatic pace and
construction."[65] In The New Grove Dictionary
of Opera, Roger Parker writes that:
the listener is bombarded by a stunning
diversity of rhythms, orchestral textures,
melodic motifs and harmonic devices.
Passages that in earlier times would have
furnished material for an entire number here
crowd in on each other, shouldering themselves
unceremoniously to the fore in bewildering
succession.[26]

First edition cover

The opera was described by its creators as
a commedia lirica.[n 10] McDonald commented in
2009 that Falstaff is very different a stylistic
departure from Verdi's earlier work.[67] In
McDonald's view most of the musical
expression is in the dialogue, and there is only
one traditional aria.[67] The result is that "such
stylistic economy more sophisticated, more
challenging than he had employed before is
the keynote of the work." McDonald argues that
consciously or unconsciously, Verdi was
developing the idiom that would come to
dominate the music of the 20th century: "the
lyricism is abbreviated, glanced at rather than
indulged. Melodies bloom suddenly and then
vanish, replaced by contrasting tempo or an
unexpected phrase that introduces another
character or idea".[67] In McDonald's view the
orchestral writing acts as a sophisticated
commentator on the action.[67] It has influenced
at least one of Verdi's operatic successors: in
1952 Imogen Holst, musical assistant
to Benjamin Britten, wrote, after a performance
of Falstaff, "I realised for the first time how
much Ben owes to [Verdi]. There are orchestral

bits which are justas funny to listen to as the

comic instrumental bits in A. Herring!"[68]
The extent to which Falstaff is a
"Shakespearian" opera has often been debated
by critics. Although the action is taken from The
Merry Wives of Windsor, some commentators
feel that Boito and Verdi have transmuted
Shakespeare's play into a wholly Italian work.
The soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf believed
there was nothing English or Shakespearian
about the comedy: "it was all done through the
music".[69] In 1961 Peter Heyworth wrote in The
Observer, "Because of Shakespeare we like to
think of Falstaff as a work that has a certain
Englishness. In fact the opera is no more
English than Aida is Egyptian. Boito and Verdi
between them transformed the fat knight into
one of the archetypes of opera buffa."[70]Verdi
himself, however, felt that the Falstaff of the
opera is not a conventional
Italian buffo character, but portrays
Shakespeare's fuller, more ambiguous Falstaff
of the Henry IV plays: "My Falstaff is not merely
the hero of The Merry Wives of Windsor, who is
simply a buffoon, and allows himself to be
tricked by the women, but also the Falstaff of
the two parts of Henry IV. Boito has written the
libretto in accordance." [2] A contemporary critic
argued that the text "imitated with marvellous
accuracy the metre and rhythm of
Shakespeare's verse",[21] but Hepokoski notes
Boito's use of traditional Italian metric
conventions.[n 11]
Another recurrent question is how much, if at
all, Verdi was influenced by Wagner's comic
opera Die Meistersinger. At the time of the
premiere this was a sensitive subject; many
Italians were suspicious of or hostile to
Wagner's music, and were protective in a

nationalistic way of Verdi's reputation.

Nevertheless, Verdi's new style was
markedly different from that of his popular
works of the 1850s and 1860s, and it seemed
to some to have Wagnerian echoes.[72] In 1999
the critic Andrew Porter wrote,
"That Falstaff was Verdi's and Boito's answer to
Wagner's Meistersinger seems evident now.
But the Italian Falstaff moves more
quickly."[8] Toscanini, who did more than anyone
else to bring Falstaff into the regular operatic
repertoire, commented:
[72]

the difference between Falstaff, which is the

absolute masterpiece, and Die Meistersinger,
which is an outstanding Wagnerian opera. Just
think for a moment how many musical means
beautiful ones, certainly Wagner must make
use of to describe the Nuremberg night. And
look how Verdi gets a similarly startling effect at
a similar moment with three notes.[73]
Verdi scholars including Julian Budden have
analysed the music in symphonic terms the
opening section "a perfect
little sonata movement", the second act
concluding with a variant of the classic
slow concertante ensemble leading to a
fast stretto, and the whole opera ending with
"the most academic of musical forms", a fugue.
[74]
Milnes suggests that this shows "a wise old
conservative's warning about the excesses of
the verismo school of Italian opera" already on
the rise by the 1890s.[75] Among the solo
numbers woven into the continuous score are
Falstaff's "honour" monologue, which concludes
the first scene, and his
reminiscent arietta ("Quand'ero paggio") about
himself as a young page.[76] The young lovers,
Nannetta and Fenton, are given a lyrical and
playful duet ("Labbra di foco") in Act I;[75] in Act

III, Fenton's impassioned love song, "Dal labbro

il canto estasiato vola" briefly becomes a duet
when Nannetta joins him.[75] She then has the
last substantial solo section of the score, the
"fairy" aria, "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio", described
by Parker as "yet another aria suffused with the
soft orchestral colours that characterize this
scene".[26]
The score is seen by the critic Richard Osborne
as rich in self-parody, with sinister themes
from Rigoletto and Un ballo in
maschera transmuted into comedy. For
Osborne the nocturnal music of Act III draws on
the examples
of Weber, Berlioz and Mendelssohn, creating a
mood akin to that of Shakespeare's A
Midsummer Night's Dream. Osborne views the
whole opera as an ensemble piece, and he
comments that grand soliloquy in the old
Verdian style is reserved for Ford's "jealousy"
aria in Act II, which is almost tragic in style but
comic in effect, making Ford "a figure to be
laughed at."[77] Osborne concludes his analysis,
"Falstaff is comedy's musical apogee: the finest
opera, inspired by the finest dramatist, by the
finest opera composer the world has known". [78]
Recordings[edit]
Main article: Falstaff discography
There are two early recordings of Falstaff's
short arietta "Quand'ero paggio". Pini Corsi, the
original Ford, recorded it in 1904, and Maurel
followed in 1907.[79] The first recording of the
complete opera was made by Italian Columbia
in March and April 1932. It was conducted
by Lorenzo Molajoli with the chorus and
orchestra of La Scala, and a cast
including Giacomo Rimini as Falstaff and Pia
Tassinari as Alice.[80] Some live stage

performances were recorded in the 1930s, but

the next studio recording was that conducted by
Toscanini for broadcast by NBC in 1950,
released on disc by RCA. The
first stereophonic recording was conducted by
Herbert von Karajan for EMI in 1956.[79]
Among the singers whose performances of the
title role are on live or studio recordings, Italians
include Renato Bruson, Tito Gobbi, Rolando
Panerai, Ruggero Raimondi,Mariano
Stabile, Giuseppe Taddei and Giuseppe
Valdengo; Francophone singers include Gabriel
Bacquier, Jean-Philippe Lafont and Jos van
Dam; Germans include Walter Berry, Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau and Hans Hotter; and UK and
US singers include Geraint Evans, Donald
Gramm, Bryn Terfel, Leonard
Warren and Willard White.[53]
Notes, references and sources[edit]
Notes
1. Jump up^ Authorities differ on the date
of Maurel's offering. Algernon St JohnBrenon in The Musical Quarterly in 1916
put the date at 1886, before the premiere
of Otello.[4] Karen Henson in 19thCentury Music in 2007 quotes letters from
1890 that show Maurel's offer of the
French libretto as dating from that year,
while it was still a secret that Verdi was
working on Falstaff.[5]
2. Jump up^ Boito eliminated the
characters Master George Page, William
Page, Justice Shallow, Slender, Sir Hugh
Evans, Nym, Peter Simple and John
Rugby. He turned Fenton into a
conventional juvenile lead, rather than

Shakespeare's less romantic and more

mercenary character. Mistress Quickly
became simply a neighbour of the Fords
and Pages, rather than Caius's servant.
[8]
Subplots involving these characters
were cut, including Caius's discovery of
Simple in his closet (I.iv), his duel with
Evans (III.i), William's Latin lesson (IV.i),
and the theft of a German duke's horses
(IV.v).[9]
3. Jump up^ There is a tradition that
Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of
Windsor at the command of Elizabeth I,
who expressed a wish to see "Sir John in
Love".[10] The character was familiar to
Elizabethan audiences from both parts
of Henry IV and there was
disappointment when Shakespeare
omitted him from Henry V.[10] The Merry
Wives was written in haste, and most
critics in the 18th century and afterwards
found the character of Falstaff crudely
drawn by comparison with the more
ambiguous figure in the two earlier plays.
In 1744 Corbyn Morris wrote that in The
Merry Wives, Falstaff is "in general
greatly below his true character".[11] In
later studies of the character by Maurice
Morgann (1777) and William Richardson
(1789) the Falstaff of The Merry Wives is
almost completely ignored.[12] After Boito's
time many critics continued to share the
views of Morris and his successors; John
Dover Wilson (1953) was dismissive,
[12]
and W H Audencalled The Merry
Wives "Shakespeare's worst play".[10] A L
Rowse (1978) took a more favourable
view: "It is the same old reprobate, with
the same virtuosity of language in

recounting his misadventures as that with

which he had regaled Prince Hal."[10]
4. Jump up^ The house, near Busseto,
remains in the possession of the Verdi
family. The composer's rooms are
preserved intact and are open to the
public. Verdi's volumes of Shakespeare
remain by his bedside.[14]
5. Jump up^ Some editions of
Shakespeare give the name as
"Brainford".[19]
6. Jump up^ Maurel's compliance stopped
short of playing the title role in the original
company's tour when it played in
Germany. As a Frenchman, with the
German victory in the Franco-Prussian
War still an offence to French national
pride, he refused to perform in Germany.
[31]

7. Jump up^ Reserved seats on

the platea (main floor) were raised from 5
lire to 150 lire, with similar increases in
other parts of the house.[35]
8. Jump up^ Although most of the music
is through-composed, with no obvious
breaks where an encore could be taken,
Verdi had agreed in advance that the
women's quartet "Quell'otre! quel tino!"
and Falstaff's brief song "Quand'ero
paggio" could be encored. Hepokoski
speculates that the conductor may have
slowed and then briefly stopped the
music to allow the audience to applaud.
[36]
At later performances Verdi allowed
other sections of the score to be encored,

including Nannetta's "Sul fil d'un soffio

etesio".[36]
9. Jump up^ Among leading conductors of
later generations who have been
associated with Falstaff are Claudio
Abbado and Sir Colin Davis, both of
whom recorded the work twice.[53]
10. Jump up^ Although the term translates
literally into English as "lyric
comedy", Leoncavallo used it for his
version of La bohme (1897), which ends
tragically, and Puccini used the term for
his bittersweet La rondine (1917).[66]
11. Jump up^ Thus, the young lovers
generally sing to one another
in quinari (five-syllable lines), the merry
wives do their plotting in senari (sixsyllable lines) and Ford and his cohorts
are given ottonari(eight-syllable lines).[71]
References
1. Jump up^ Budden, Vol. 1, pp. 6974
2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Klein, John W. "Verdi
and Falstaff", The Musical Times, 1 July
1926, pp. 605607 (subscription
required)
3. Jump up^ Baldini, p. 220
4. Jump up^ St John-Brenon,
Algernon. "Giuseppe Verdi", The Musical
Quarterly, January 1916, pp. 130162
5. Jump up^ Henson, Karen. "Verdi versus
Victor Maurel on Falstaff", 19th-Century

Music, November 2007, pp. 113

130 (subscription required)
6. Jump up^ Melchiori, pp. 9091
7. Jump up^ Rice, John A. "Falstaff (i)",
and Brown, Clive."Lustigen Weiber von
Windsor, Die", The New Grove Dictionary
of Opera, Oxford Music Online. Oxford
University Press. Retrieved 2 March
2014 (subscription required)
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Porter, Andrew. "Roll
Up! Here We Come Again!", programme
booklet, Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden, 6 December 1999, pp. 1014
9. Jump up^ Hepokoski, p. 26
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Rowse, p. 444
11. Jump up^ Vickers, p. 122
12. ^ Jump up to:a b Melchiori, p. 89
13. ^ Jump up to:a b c Verdi to Boito, 6 and 7
July 1889, in Phillips-Matz 1993, p. 700.
(Capital letters and punctuation used
here are as in the book)
14. ^ Jump up to:a b Gallo, Denise (2010).
"Repatriating 'Falstaff': Boito, Verdi and
Shakespeare (in
Translation)", Nineteenth-Century Music
Review, November 2010, pp. 734
15. Jump up^ Steen, p. 453
16. Jump up^ Verdi to Boito, 10 July 1889,
in Phillips-Matz, pp. 700701

17. Jump up^ Hepokoski, p. 22

18. Jump up^ Verdi to Boito, 18 August
1889, in Phillips-Matz, p. 702
19. Jump up^ Shakespeare and Alexander,
Act IV, scene ii
20. Jump up^ Wechsberg, p. 229
21. ^ Jump up to:a b Steatfeild, p. 111
22. Jump up^ Boito to Verdi, 30 October
1889, in Phillips-Matz, p. 703
23. Jump up^ Hepokoski, pp. 2226
24. Jump up^ Boito to Verdi, in McDonald
2009, p. 8
25. Jump up^ Hepokoski, p. 35
26. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Parker,
Roger. "Falstaff (ii)", The New Grove
Dictionary of Opera, Grove Music Online,
Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17
May 2015 (subscription required)
27. Jump up^ Verdi to Maria Waldmann, 6
December 1890, in Philips-Matz, p. 707:
Waldmann was a young singer with
whom Verdi corresponded
28. Jump up^ Verdi to Boito, 12 June 1891,
in Philips-Matz, p. 709
29. Jump up^ Hepokoski, p. 36
30. Jump up^ Verdi to Teresa Stolz, 9
September 1892, in Phillips-Matz, p. 712

31. Jump up^ "Verdi's Falstaff at

Berlin", The Times, 2 June 1893, p. 5
32. Jump up^ Verdi to Ricordi, 18
September 1892, in Phillips-Matz, pp.
714715
33. Jump up^ "Verdi's Falstaff, The Times,
8 December 1892, p. 5
34. Jump up^ Phillips-Matz, p. 715
35. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Hepokoski, pp. 55
56
36. ^ Jump up to:a b Hepokoski, pp. 126127
37. Jump up^ Hepokoski, p. 56
38. Jump up^ Phillips-Matz, pp. 717720
39. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hepokoski, p. 83
40. Jump up^ Gossett, Philip. "Some
Thoughts on the Use of Autograph
Manuscripts in Editing the Works of Verdi
and Puccini", Journal of the American
Musicological Society, Spring 2013, pp.
103128 (subscription required)
41. ^ Jump up to:a b Hepokoski, p. 129
42. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hepokoski, pp. 7677
43. Jump up^ "Performance History",
programme booklet, Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden, 6 December 1999, p. 43
44. Jump up^ Kimbell, p. 461
45. Jump up^ "Verdi's great Falstaff, The
New York Times, 5 February 1895

46. ^ Jump up to:a b Aldrich, Richard. "To be

Given at a Special Saturday Night
Performance at the Metropolitan", The
New York Times, 7 March 1909
47. Jump up^ Beecham, p. 178
48. Jump up^ Civetta, Chapter 3: "Falstaff"
section.
49. ^ Jump up to:a b Osborne, pp. 150151
50. Jump up^ Osborne, pp. 406, 409, 420,
655 and 815.
51. Jump up^ Solti, pp. 79 and 191; and
Hepokoski, p. 134
52. Jump up^ Hepokoski, pp. 135136
53. ^ Jump up to:a b "Falstaff Discography",
Opera Discography. Retrieved 21 July
2013
54. Jump up^ Hepokoski, pp. 136137
55. Jump up^ Higgins, John. "Autumnal
mastery of Verdi's emotional range", The
Times, 16 April 1982, p. 9
56. Jump up^ Milnes, Rodney. "In the belly
of the best", The Times, 8 December
1999, p. 44
57. Jump up^ Clark, Robert S. Music
Chronicle, The Hudson Review, Winter,
2006, pp. 633634 (subscription
required)

58. Jump up^ Rhein, John von. "Solti, CSO

brilliant in spiritedFalstaff", The Chicago
Tribune, 27 April 1985
59. Jump up^ "201213 season",
Operabase.com. Retrieved 23 September
2013
60. Jump up^ List of singers taken from
Budden, Vol 3, p. 416.
61. Jump up^ Budden, Vol 3, p. 430
62. Jump up^ Kimbell, pp. 461462; and
Latham, Alison. "Synopsis", programme
booklet, Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden, 6 December 1999, p. 43
63. ^ Jump up to:a b Boito and Verdi,
introductory pages
64. Jump up^ Boito and Verdi, pp. 12
65. Jump up^ Milnes, p. 7
66. Jump up^ Maehder, Jrgen. "Bohme,
La (ii)" and Budden Julian. "Rondine,
La", The New Grove Dictionary of Opera,
Oxford Music Online, Oxford University
Press. Retrieved 2 March
2014 (subscription required)
67. ^ Jump up to:a b c d McDonald 2009, p. 7
68. Jump up^ Grogan, p. 169
69. Jump up^ Osborne, p. 406
70. Jump up^ Heyworth, Peter. "Falstaff
and the Verdi canon", The Observer, 14
May 1961, p. 26

71. Jump up^ Hepokoski, p. 31

72. ^ Jump up to:a b Hepokoski, pp. 138139
73. Jump up^ Toscanini, Arturo, quoted in
Lualdi's L'arte di dirigere
l'orchestra (1940) reprinted in Sachs, p.
247
74. Jump up^ Milnes, pp. 78
75. ^ Jump up to:a b c Milnes, p. 8
76. Jump up^ Osborne, pp. 16 and 18
77. Jump up^ Osborne, p. 13
78. Jump up^ Osborne, p. 15
79. ^ Jump up to:a b Walker, Malcolm.
"Discography" in Hepokoski, pp. 176177
80. Jump up^ Notes to Naxos Historical CD
8.11019899 (2002)
Sources
Baldini, Gabriele (1980). The Story of
Giuseppe Verdi: Oberto to Un ballo in
maschera. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22911-1.
Beecham, Thomas (1959). A Mingled
Chime. London:
Hutchinson. OCLC 470511334.
Boito, Arrigo; Giuseppe Verdi (1980)
[1893]. Falstaff in Full Score. New York:
Dover.ISBN 978-0-486-24017-6.

 Budden, Julian (1984). The Operas of Verdi,

Volume 1: From Oberto to Rigoletto.
London: Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-31058-6.
Budden, Julian (1984). The Operas of Verdi,
Volume 3: From Don Carlos to Falstaff.
London: Cassell. ISBN 978-0-304-30740-1.
Civetta, Cesare (2012). "Falstaff" The Real
Toscanini Musicians Reveal the Maestro.
New York: Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-1-57467241-1.
Grogan, Christopher (2010) [2007]. Imogen
Holst: A Life in Music. Woodbridge, UK and
New York: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-184383-599-8.
Hepokoski, James (1983). Giuseppe Verdi
"Falstaff". Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.ISBN 978-0-521-23534-1.
Kimbell, David (2001). "Falstaff". In Holden,
Amanda. The New Penguin Opera Guide.
New York: Penguin Putnam. ISBN 978-0-14029312-8.
McDonald, Russ (2009). To astonish the
world, Notes to Glyndebourne DVD
recording. Waldron, Heathfield, UK: Opus
Arte. OCLC 610513504.
Melchiori, Giorgio (1999). "Introduction". The
Merry Wives of Windsor. Arden
Shakespeare. London: Thomson. ISBN 9780-17-443561-7.
Milnes, Rodney (2004). Falstaff: notes to
LSO Live recording. London: London
Symphony Orchestra. OCLC 57210727.

 Morris, Corbyn (1744). An Essay Towards

Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour,
Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule. London: J
Roberts and W Bickerton. OCLC 83444213.
Osborne, Richard (1989). Karajan conducts
Falstaff. London: EMI. OCLC 42632423.
Osborne, Richard (1998). Herbert von
Karajan: A Life in Music. London: Chatto and
Windus.ISBN 978-1-85619-763-2.
Phillips-Matz, Mary Jane (1993). Verdi: A
Biography. London and New York: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-313204-7.
Rowse, A L (1978). "The Merry Wives of
Windsor". The Annotated
Shakespeare, Volume 1. London:
Orbis. ISBN 978-0-85613-087-8.
Sachs, Harvey (1988). Toscanini. New York:
Harper and Row. ISBN 978-0-06-091473-8.
Shakespeare, William (1994). "The Merry
Wives of Windsor". In Peter
Alexander. Complete works of William
Shakespeare. Glasgow:
HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-470474-6.
Steen, Michael (2003). The Lives and Times
of the Great Composers. New York: Icon
Books. ISBN 978-1-56159-228-9.
Streatfeild, R A (1895). Masters of Italian
Music. London: Osgood
McIlvain. OCLC 2578278.
Vickers, Brian (2002). William Shakespeare:
The Critical Heritage, Volume 3: 17331752.

London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-783557.

Wechsberg, Joseph (1974). Verdi. London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-29776818-0.
Further reading[edit]
Osborne, Charles (1969). The Complete
Operas of Verdi. New York: Da Capo
Press. ISBN 0306800721.
Toye, Francis (1931). Giuseppe Verdi: His
Life and Works. London:
Heinemann. OCLC 462427571.
Werfel, Franz; Paul Stefan (1973). Verdi:
The Man and His Letters. New York: Vienna
House. ISBN 0844300888.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia
Commons has
media related
to Falstaff
(Verdi).
List of performances of Falstaff by
Verdi on Operabase.
Falstaff (Verdi): Scores at the International
Music Score Library Project
Libretto at giuseppeverdi.it
Kingston, W. Beatty (translator), Falstaff: A
Lyrical Comedy in Three Acts. Libretto with
original English translation at archive.org.

 Detailed information on the key arias at ariadatabase.com

Detailed Falstaff discography at operadisopera-discography.org.uk
Victor Maurel's 1907 recording of
"Quand'ero paggio", at the Bibliothque
nationale de France
[show]

e
Giuseppe Verdi

[show]

e
William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives
Authority control

Categories:
1893 operas
Italian-language operas
Opera world premieres at La Scala
Operas by Giuseppe Verdi
Operas
Operas based on The Merry Wives of Windsor
Navigation menu
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions

GND: 30
BNF: cb1481

Create account
Log in
Article
Talk
Read
Edit
View history
Go

Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
Languages



Catal
etina
Dansk
Deutsch
Espaol
Esperanto
Franais
Galego


Italiano

Latina
Magyar
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands

Polski
Portugus
Romn

Simple English
Slovenina
/ srpski
Suomi
Svenska
Trke

Ting Vit
Edit links
This page was last modified on 1 January 2016,
at 16:42.

 Text is available under the Creative Commons

Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms
may apply. By using this site, you agree to
the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of
the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Mobile view