Background
Introduction
Falstaff’s qualities
Verdi and Shakespeare
Shakespeare's Falstaff and Boito, Verdi's
librettist
Falstaff
Opening: The Garter Inn and introducing
Pistol and Bardolf.
Falstaff's plan to restore his finances
by courting Mistresses Ford and Page
begins. The honour monologue
Act I, Scene 2: Fords' garden and the
ladies laugh at their letters from Falstaff.
Enter Ford, Dr Caius, Bardolf and Pistol,
who betray Falstaff’s plans. Nanetta
and Fenton exchange lovers words
Act II, Scene 2: Mistress Quickly visits
Falstaff and sets the trap for his visit
of Mistress Ford
Enter Signer Fontana (Ford) and the
jealousy monologue
Act II, Scene 2: inside the Fords' house
Act III, Scene 1: Falstaff back at The
Garter Inn soaked to the skin after
being tipped from the laundry basket
into the river
Act III, Scene 2: Windsor Great Park
Enter the townspeople, disguised
Final pages of the opera
The narration starts
(tr. 1) with the opening strains of
Bella figlia del’amore, the quartet
from Rigoletto, with the
suggestion that Falstaff is even greater
in melody than its predecessor. Similarly,
it is suggested, with a brief clip of
Di quella pira from Il
Trovatore, that Falstaff is as crowded
and action packed as that work. What
are needed at this point, I suggest,
is a few musical examples such as the
laughter of the wives on receiving Falstaff’s
letter, or the searching of the rooms
by the jealous Ford and his supporter’s
whilst the amorous ‘hero’ hides in the
laundry basket. These musical examples
are in fact included later, as part
of the narrative sequence taking the
listener through the opera. However
they would also have better illustrated
the claim that the work has the youthful
vitality and humour seemingly lost in
Italian opera since the days of Rossini
and Donizetti and seemingly in terminal
decline since the latter’s L’Elisir
D’Amore of 1832. There is no mention
of the fact that Falstaff is only Verdi’s
second comic opera since his second
stage work, Un giorno di regno
of 1842, and the possible reasons he
did not return to the genre before this
final masterpiece. The narrative goes
on (tr. 2) to glory in the rich flow
of melodic tunes, often very brief,
which characterise this opera. Again
there is reference back to Verdi’s great
middle period, this time to La Traviata
and its richness of melody. There is
a significant failure at this point
to touch upon the significant structural
and organisational differences between
the composer’s middle period works and
his two final operas, Otello and Falstaff.
Such differences help explain why the
three great middle period triumvirate
referred to have always remained in
the repertoire of opera houses world-wide
whilst the latter have been loved more
by musicians than the public at large,
at least until recent years. The narration
claims Falstaff to stand alongside Mozart’s
Figaro and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger
in purveying an autumnal glow and positive
quality of humanity. An interesting
subject for a post-graduate thesis perhaps?
In examining the relationship
of Verdi with Shakespeare the narrative
calls both of them great titans of their
art (tr. 3). It postulates that the
greater the play the lesser the opera,
whilst only in Otello and Falstaff does
a composer match the playwright in greatness.
The lack of a great opera based on Lear
or Hamlet are cited as examples. Wholly
appropriate tribute is paid to Boito’s
vital contribution in enabling Verdi
to match Shakespeare with his capacity
for drawing out a taut libretto from
the plays concerned. Boito reduced Otello
by six-sevenths and in Falstaff reduces
the twenty-three characters in The Merry
Wives of Windsor to just ten in the
opera. The narrative could also have
gainfully mentioned Boito’s careful
courting of Verdi that encouraged the
74-year-old composer to pick up his
pen again and produce first Otello and
then, five years later, Falstaff. The
relationship had its rocky moments and
the irascible Verdi’s feathers were
easily ruffled. At one point in the
early days of the composition of Otello,
Verdi offered to return the libretto
to Boito for his own use after a statement
by the latter had been misquoted to
the composer. In the final section of
the introduction (tr. 4) the narrative
reverts to the three Shakespeare plays
and how Boito merged them to give the
major and sub-plots of Falstaff.
In the remaining tracks
(trs. 5-15) the listener is taken through
the intricacies of the opera with brief
musical inserts taken from a not particularly
well-sung performance. Occasional musical
points are made, the most important,
and extensive, concerning the fugue
to which Verdi set the final scene.
The great man, having long eschewed
Bachian purity in the pursuit of melody,
showed he could have done it in the
purer mode if he had chosen to do so.
I suggest that, if he had, the world
of opera would have been immeasurably
poorer. Yes, Falstaff is full of humanity
and youthful vitality, an amazing creation
for a man of 79 years. It is also a
complex opera and it is well explained
here. However, an opportunity is missed
to give a broader contextual introduction
in the manner often found in earlier
issues of this series.
Robert J Farr
Narrative written by Thomson Smillie and spoken
by David Timson 
