Falstaff 1977

Synopsis
Artists

In Verdi’s comic masterpiece…

…Shakespeare’s famous knight tries to outsmart the Merry Wives…summed up, ‘Life is the joke we make it.’

Music By

Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto By

Arrigo Boito

Act I

The scene is set in the town of Windsor in England.

Scene I: The Garter Inn. Falstaff is composing two love epistles and is disturbed by the arrival of the pompous school-master, Dr. Caius, who demands reparation from Falstaff against his “retainers” Pistol and Bardolph who have robbed him while he was drunk on the previous evening. Falstaff berates his companions, not for robbing the old pedant but for being caught at it. He himself is in dire financial straits and he hopes to better himself by loosening the purse strings of one of two attractive Windsor wives, Alice Ford and Meg Page. He has written identical love letters to them but Pistol and Bardolph refuse to act as his pander. Falstaff sends Robin, the inn pot-boy, off with the letters.

Scene 2: A garden between the houses of Alice Ford and Meg Page. Meg and Alice have received the letters and are encouraged by Nanetta and Mistress Quickly to take some delicious revenge. They leave to discuss it as Ford comes out of his house with Caius, complaining of his treatment at Falstaff’s hands, and by Bardolph and Pistol who have betrayed Falstaff’s intentions towards Ford’s wife. Ford views his impending cuckold’s horns with wrath and goes back into the house to discuss the matter. Young Fenton, following Ford, snatches a few moments and kisses from his sweetheart Nanetta. The others all return, both groups deciding on how to exact their separate revenges: Alice will make an assignation with Falstaff and then discomfort him with the feigned return of her jealous husband. Ford, for his part, is to go disguised as a Master Brook and bribe Falstaff to act as pander between him and his own wife and so unmask him.

Act II

Scene I: The Garter Inn. Bardolph and Pistol hypocritically ask Falstaff’s forgiveness while introducing Mistress Quickly with a message from Alice. She indicates that her old friend Alice may be prepared to receive Falstaff between two and three o’clock. Quickly has hardly left when Master “Brook” is announced; he pays Falstaff handsomely to effect a meeting between himself and Mistress Ford. Falstaff hastens to agree.

Scene 2: Fords house. Quickly reports that Falstaff is on his way. The plan is to hide the old knight in a basket of filthy laundry and to empty him into the river. Their merriment is interrupted by Nanetta; her father has promised her hand in marriage to the odious Dr. Caius. Alice cheers her up by promising that it will be over her dead body. The others hide as Falstaff arrives and declares himself. The wooing is rudely interrupted by the actual return of Ford and his cronies who turn the house upside down in an effort to find the cuckoo in the nest. At first Falstaff hides behind a screen but as soon as Ford has left the room he is stuffed into the laundry basket. Ford returns and is more indignant than ever, until Alice shows her husband the spectacle of the laundry basket, dirty sheets, Falstaff, and all floating down the river Thames.

Act III

Scene I: The courtyard of the Garter Inn. Falstaff, back at the Inn, drying off, is disillusioned with

life. Quickly appears with another note from Alice apologizing for the afternoon’s debacle and asking for another assignation. Quickly slowly regains Sir John’s confidence: he is to disguise himself as Herne, the ghostly Black Huntsman, and meet her at midnight under Herne’s oak in Windsor Forest.

Scene 2: Herne’ s Oak in Windsor Forest. It is a moonlit night and everyone is in disguise. Falstaff approaches. His awkward love-making is interrupted by “supernatural” sounds. Alice flees while Falstaff flings himself to the ground at the foot of the oak tree. The whole company appears, variously disguised as elves, fairies, demons and other horrors. They give Falstaff a sound thrashing to teach him to mend his ways. The masquerade falls apart when Falstaff recognizes Bardolph by his alcoholic breath. In the merriment that follows all is forgiven. Falstaff suggests a final chorus to be followed by supper. The great fugue begins (“Tutto nel mondo è burla”): the world’s a fool and man was born for jesting. Everyone gets cheated and deluded (“tutti gabbati’), but the best laugh of all comes from him who laughs last.

Synopsis

Act I

Act II

Act III

Artists

Thomas Stewart

Thomas Stewart

Jean Kraft

Jean Kraft

Kathleen Kaun

Kathleen Kaun

Ellen Shade

Ellen Shade

Maureen Forrester

Maureen Forrester

Sheri Greenawald

Sheri Greenawald

Douglas Perry

Douglas Perry

William Dansby

William Dansby

James Hoback

James Hoback

Vinson Cole

Vinson Cole

Pablo Elvira

Pablo Elvira

Lenus Carlson

Lenus Carlson

Pietro Pozzo

Pietro Pozzo

Edo de Waart

Edo de Waart

Bruce Ferden

Bruce Ferden

Colin Graham

Colin Graham

Allen Charles Klein

Allen Charles Klein

Suzanne Mess

Suzanne Mess

Rush Dudley

Rush Dudley

Terry Lusk

Terry Lusk

Falstaff 1977