The most illustrious of operatic careers ends in the most improbable of ways. Verdi ends Falstaff – his last opera – with a full blown classical fugue as all the main characters overlap and meld their voices into a joyous outpouring of “Tutto nel mondo è burla” (all in the world's a joke). In today's Sunday matinee at Budapest's Erkel Theatre, Ambrogio Maestri seemed to infect the rest of the cast with the spirit of the work. The big man in the fat suit has made the role his personal property in recent years, and though he must have performed it hundreds of times by now, the freshness and vigour still exudes from every pore. It's not just Maestri's characterisation that wins you over: it's also the pure quality of the voice. He uses several different voices for comic effect, but his go-to voice is the most ample of smooth baritones, a big cuddly bear of a voice, one that you know could turn to a growl but still a voice that you'd leave your small children with.
The other singers weren't quite up to Maestri's star quality, but there were still plenty of voices to enjoy, with the male roles coming off best. Gunyong Na has a baritone with the smoothness to approach Maestri's, although a less ample voice with a harder edge – very suitable for the role of Ford. Péter Balczó sang Fenton attractively: the voice is clear and he achieved a nice heartfelt tone in his Act III aria "Dal labbro il canto". Gábor Géza was an entertainingly bibulous Pistol.
The female voices were more mixed. Bori Keszei sang Nannetta accurately in a light soprano that was nicely weighted and pretty but could have done with an extra touch of sweetness. Bernadett Wiedemann, as Quickly, has a lovely upper register but didn't generate the power lower down. Similarly, Beatrix Fodor as Alice sounded good when singing on her own against light orchestration, but a lack of raw power was exposed when the music thickened out. Especially in the first act, some of the ensemble passages – the female and male quartets and one point where they join – got a little ragged.
Apart from the imperfection in vocal ensemble, however, conductor Balázs Kocsár didn't put a foot wrong: this was a fine demonstration of how to conduct brightly at a brisk pace but with admirable lightness of touch, without ever overpowering the singers or degenerating into manic excess. In the few places where Verdi lets the pace to drop to allow for a lyrical passage – either a romantic one for Fenton and Nannetta or a reflective one for Falstaff – the singers were given plenty of time to breathe and the orchestra space to shape their phrases.