À l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Falstaff rencontre un grand succès dans la mise en scène fantasque de Jean-Louis Grinda. Nicola Alaimo propose une admirable incarnation du rôle-titre.
Cette reprise de Falstaff fait la part belle à l’esprit buffa et donne à Bryn Terfel une nouvelle occasion de briller dans un rôle qui lui sied à merveille.
Un spectacle magnifique en cette fin de saison à Genève ! Tout y resplendit de noirceur dans cette farce géniale d’un Verdi qui va bientôt nous dire au revoir... Génie !
Comic opera can fall flat, but if The Grange Festival's new production of Verdi's final masterpiece is a total delight, with a strong concept and a strong cast. This is country-house opera at its best.
Opera Bohemia provides a fun-filled showcase for Conservatoire graduates in a finely sung Falstaff heading for the Edinburgh Fringe with a small orchestra.
Bruno Ravella's fast-paced Falstaff for Garsington still has crucial space for pathos amid the comedy, with a notably subtle central performance from Henry Waddington.
Christoph Waltz setzt auf blanken Ernst statt Komik – doch ein gutes Solistenensemble, ein solides Orchester und ein Schachzug verhindern eine Falstaff-Enttäuschung.
Renzetti's traditional rendition does not reveal yet unprecedented details of a score that is the summation of Verdi's mastery and his last work – his third based on Shakespeare.
Not a particularly revealing Falstaff, but a pleasing performance though. Maybe one would have expected something of greater impact from a festival like this one, but that goal had already accomplished by Graham Vick with his Stiffelio the night before...
The 2013 Salzburg production of Damiano Michieletto's Falstaff finally arrives in Milan where the director sets the opera in “Casa Verdi”, the Milanese residence for elderly singers and musicians.
Dass Falstaff auch konzertant seinen spitzbübischen Charme behalten kann, zeigte das BRSO unter Daniel Harding: das großartige Ensemble ließ nichts vermissen.
Laughter is indeed the best medicine. As we try and make sense of the continuing political fallout post EU referendum, the CBSO offered the perfect prescription in the ample form of Verdi's Falstaff.
A huge revolving grey monolith centre stage dominated a grey floor, grey props and men in grey costumes, all detracting from the gaiety Verdi envisaged as the essence of Falstaff.
“If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it.” There was certainly plenty of Shakespeare-inspired music on the bill for the London Philharmonic Orchestra's celebration of The Bard.
Jonathan Miller may not be directing new productions of operas any more, but his productions are still being revived in many countries; in Tokyo’s New National Theatre, his Falstaff has just been revived.
If “all the world’s a jest”, as Sir John Falstaff claims at the end of Verdi’s final operatic masterpiece, then we need players – and directors – with a sense of frivolity. Robert Carsen truly delivers.
The Merry Wives of Windsor – relocated to Scotland – sing beautifully, as does their wooer, Falstaff. But it's not clear why they're in Scotland in the first place, or how the rest of the staging fits the opera.
Opera Australia’s Falstaff in Melbourne brings freshness to this almost 20-year-old production. Contributing to its success is an outstanding Falstaff...
After his final opera, Falstaff (1893), Verdi founded a home for retired musicians. Director Christof Loy related these two achievements by setting the opera in the nursing home...
The magnificent Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires welcomed a full house to the production of Falstaff starring Ambrogio Maestri, the world’s primary portrayer of the pompous knight. Unfortunately, one singer does not an opera make.
Ambrogio Maestri reprises his star turn as a vocally and theatrically complete Falstaff in Robert Carsen’s lavish, food-fuelled situational comedy at the Holland Festival.
Like Falstaff, I found myself attempting to gobble up as much as I could: the amusing story, Robert Carsen's resourceful directing, and the brilliant music. In addition to the strong instrumental performing, the singing was, on the whole, delightful.
Christof Loy’s new production of Falstaff for the Deutsche Oper Berlin is a conundrum. While the opera itself tells a story of comeuppance, Loy’s production seemed to be about the positive physical effects of playing pranks on your neighbors.
This November, the Opéra de Montréal celebrates Verdi’s bicentennial with a laugh, presenting his comic opera Falstaff. The revival of David Gately’s production, originally produced by Glimmerglass Opera and the recently deceased New York City Opera, received no shortage of snickers during Saturday’s première performance with Opéra de Montréal.
In the bicentenary anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi, tributes are aplenty. On Saturday evening, Los Angeles Opera presented a new production of the Italian master’s final work, Falstaff, though that wasn’t all.
It may have taken Verdi’s bicentennial to bring Falstaff back to the San Francisco Opera, but at last the knight has returned to the company’s stage for the first time in over a decade...
“Of all my works, the one that pleases me most is the Casa I’ve had built in Milan to accommodate old singers who have not been favoured by fortune or who did not possess the virtue of thrift in their youth”. This is how Verdi described the retirement home for elderly musicians he founded at the time of the composition of this opera Falstaff.
Tragedy seems to age better than comedy. The works of Aeschylus have been more influential than those of Aristophanes, and Shakespeare’s darker plays are far more popular than his pure comedies. This same propensity for gloomy subjects can also be seen in the opera world.
With Verdi's centenary coming up, his last opera Falstaff has had more attention than usual, with this production at Opera Holland Park following hot on the heels of Robert Carsen's new production at Covent Garden.
In the end, the big man gets the last laugh. Come to think of it, he also gets the first laugh, but for different reasons: you sense that Verdi steadily grew to love Falstaff in the course of writing the opera, as he turns from a coarse buffoon into a maligned old man and, eventually, into the spirit of laughter itself.
