Post Cards from the Edge Verdi’s Falstaff - Sunday, Oct 26, 2013, 8 pm - War Memorial, San Francisco | Welcome to Fred’s Home Page

Verdi’s Falstaff - Sunday, Oct 26, 2013, 8 pm - War Memorial, San Francisco 



This is Verdi’s only comic opera and the last he wrote.  I felt the production was really great. Bryn Terfel has defined the role of Falstaff over the years and he did not disappoint.

Falstaff has his flunkies and bids them to deliver two love letters to two different ladies who control their husband’s monies.  His thinking is that he can cuckold the husbands and get the money.  His flunkies, although thieves and robbers, have their honor and refuse.  Falstaff gets the page to deliver the letters and kicks his flunkies out of the tavern. 

The wives, Meg Page and Alice Ford gossip and both talk about the letter each receive from Falstaff.  When they realize the letters are the same, they guess his game and plan their revenge.  They set up a tryst with Falstaff to come around.  Unfortunately, Ford, Meg’s husband comes home.  He has learned that Falstaff intends to cuckold him and he wishes to catch Falstaff and his wife.  Flastaff hides in a laundry hamper and ends up being dumped into the river by the wives.  Ford doesn’t find Falstaff. 

The husband realizes the plan and decides to proceed to punish Falstaff who is called to Windsor Forest to meet Meg as part of the plan.  In the end, the jokes on everyone and Falstaff says all the world is a jest.

Terfel was excellent and Renée Rapier as Meg was a standout.  It was a very strong cast with excellent stage design.

Image if from the San Francisco Opera web site.

© Fred Searcy 2017