Verdi's Falstaff (PDF)

Verdi's final opera, based on Shakespeare's corpulent Sir John Falstaff, was the first great Italian comic opera since Donizetti's Don Pasquale fifty years earlier. Premiered at La Scala in 1893, it represented a particular challenge because the elderly composer might not live to see it completed; and if it failed, it would tarnish 'his legacy' In the end, Verdi composed a modern opera, 'a very new art form', a music drama. It was a triumph.Arrigo Boito, the librettist of Verdi's recently successful Otello, wrote the libretto. The obese knight considers himself a ladies' man. He tries to seduce two of the wives of Windsor, Mistress Alice Ford and Mistress Meg. They set a trap for him. An assignation is interrupted by the arrival of Alice's suspicious husband. Falstaff has to hide in the washing basket which is chucked out of the window into the River Thames.Another assignation takes place at midnight in Windsor Park. This is interrupted by fairies, goblins and sprites. There, Alice's husband is tricked into marrying his daughter to the man she loves, while at the same time 'marrying' to one of Falstaff's cronies the dreary old man to whom her father had promised her.Short Guides to Great Operas written by Michael Steen, author of the acclaimed The Lives and Times of the Great Composers, are concise, entertaining, and easy-to-read books about opera. They are packed with useful information and informed opinion, helping to make you a truly knowledgeable opera-goer, and so maximising your enjoyment of a great musical experience.Each at around the price you pay for a standard opera-house programme, and available from all popular ebook retailers and ereaders, they are the perfect accompaniment to a night at an opera - whether that's at home, or at the opera house, or in the cinema for opera on screen, such as ROH Live, Met Opera HD Live, or Glyndebourne Festival in cinemas.Also available: Great Operas - A Guide to 25 of the World's Finest Musical Experiences. A compendium of Short Guides for the opera-goer who wants a wider-ranging reference to the masterpieces of the art form.