Verdi’s opera Falstaff is an amazing achievement for a man nearly 80 years old. It is also remarkable for being Verdi’s first comic opera, and for being like Otello, the opera which preceded it, a through-composed opera lacking set piece arias and ensembles. Even in his 70s, and the most celebrated opera composer of his time, Verdi was experimenting with new ways to write an opera. Unfortunately, modern producers and directors can’t leave well enough alone and let a Verdi masterpiece speak for itself in all its magic and beauty.
Gripes
In this case, producer Robert Carsen has decided that while Verdi–following Shakespeare in Henry IV Pts 1 and 2 and the Merry Wives of Windsor–set his opera in and around the town of Windsor in the first decades of the 15th century, it would vastly improve the opera to set it in 20th century England after World War II.
By so radically changing the time and place of Falstaff, Carsen has recklessly tossed aside the Shakespearean inspiration on which Verdi and his librettist Boito based their opera. By its very nature opera cannot replicate Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter, and Boito has taken us even further away from Shakespeare in removing the language of the original plays. Nonetheless, Boito and Verdi took great care to retain the characters and plot details from the original plays, and which depend to a great extent on being placed in the settings Shakespeare conceived for them. And 1950s England has nothing whatever to do with 15th century Windsor. I fail to see what light is shed on Verdi and Boito’s masterpiece to fast forward hundreds of years to a time and place having nothing whatever to do with the content of the opera.
And what of the sets? An entire act was played in front of a 1950s kitchen painted in the brightest of colours and just looking cheap and tacky. And the final act was played between gigantic doors that served no purpose whatever. Thanks to the wonders of Met Live in HD production, during scene changes we got to see stagehands behind the curtain moving sets away and putting new ones in their place. What struck me was the pointless extravagance. These enormous and complicated sets added little or nothing to one’s appreciation of the opera and required an army of stagehands to move them around. With all these high-priced folks to pay and 3,850 seats to fill no wonder the Met is running colossal deficits.
We have come to expect that Met Live in HD performances are state of the art in terms of quality of camera work, direction and sound quality. But too often the transmission quality leaves a lot to be desired. The Falstaff showing was a case in point. In the Cineplex Don Mills VIP theatre where I saw the show there was frequent dropout in the sound. It happened over and over and it became increasingly frustrating. The worst example was in the boisterous final fugue. We lost the sound for several seconds just as the music was building to a climax. This technical glitch ruined the entire scene. I don’t doubt that many theatregoers found the experience very disappointing. Naturally, no one either at the theatre or the Met gave any explanation or made any apologies.
What you missed?
But all was not lost. For the performance I saw the cast was excellent and the conducting first-rate too. Musically, this is about as good as it gets for a fine performance of Falstaff.
At the age of 63 German baritone Michael Volle is at the top of his game. He is best-known, perhaps, for his prowess in German roles but he has also distinguished himself in Italian opera. As Falstaff he was entirely convincing both as a singer and an actor. Too bad he had to cope with a misguided production.
Among the ladies, the Canadian mezzo Marie-Nicole Lemieux was wonderful as Mistress Quickly. She was musically spot-on and full of fun.
Daniele Rustioni is rapidly demonstrating that he is among the finest Italian conductors of his generation. He led a vibrant and detailed performance of Falstaff and the Met orchestra played brilliantly for him.
For the record, this Falstaff is a co-production of the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, the Canadian Opera Company, and Dutch National Opera. Shame on them all for collaborating on a travesty of the composer and librettist’s intentions.
VERDI: Falstaff. Met Live in HD. Saturday, April 1, 2023. Cineplex Don Mills, Ontario.
Robert Carsen, producer. Paul Steinberg, Set Designer. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra/Daniele Rustioni. Cast: Michael Volle (Falstaff), Ailyn Pérez (Alice Ford), Jennifer Johnson Cano (Meg Page), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Mistress Quickly), Bogdan Volkov (Fenton), Hera Hyesang Park (Nannetta), Christopher Maltman (Ford).
