Based on William Shakespeare’s play, Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff is an opera brimming with humour, wisdom and joy. Laurent Pelly’s stage direction and Daniele Rustioni’s musical direction set the action in the present day through a set design that shifts from farce to fable. Roberto de Candia plays the charismatic and irreverent protagonist, alongside Rebecca Evans as Alice Ford and Ruth Iniesta as Nannetta.
Skillfully interweaving Elizabethan theatre and satire, the plot recounts the misadventures of a decadent old gentleman whose attempts to seduce two married women set off a comical series of pranks and pursuits directed against him.
Commedia lirica in three acts
Music by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on the theatre plays Henry IV (1597) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1601) by William Shakespeare
Premiered at the Teatro Alla Scala, on February 9, 1893
Premiered at the Teatro Real on February 10, 1894
Coproduction of the Teatro Real and the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie of Brussels, Opéra National de Bordeaux, the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Foundation and Neoescenografía S.L.
Artistic team
Conductor I Daniele Rustioni
Stage director and costume designer I Laurent Pelly
Set designer I Barbara de Limburg
Lighting designer I Joêl Adam
Chorus master I Andrés Máspero
Cast
Sir John Falstaff | Roberto de Candia
Fenton | Joel Prieto
Dr. Caius | Christophe Mortagne
Bardolfo | Mikeldi Atxalandabaso
Pistola | Valeriano Lanchas
Mrs. Alice Ford | Rebecca Evans
Ford | Simone Piazzola
Nannetta | Ruth Iniesta
Mistress Quickly | Daniela Barcellona
Mrs. Meg Page | Maite Beaumont
Comedians / Actors | Magdalena Aizpurúa, Beatriz Bergamín, Estrella Martín, Dina Meïer, José Luis Alcedo Wi, David Guimera, Jorge Soria, Pablo Viña
Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
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