In
January, Shakespeare's fat knight returned to center stage at the San
Diego Opera after a long, long absence. Verdi's Falstaff
was last seen here in 1978. This time this riotous character opened San
Diego's opera season and was the vehicle of SDO General Director Ian Campbell's
American directorial debut. A splendid job! The excellent cast made Falstaff
every bit a delightful production, and even those who dismiss the work
as being a trifle silly would have thoroughly enjoyed it. Though it is not as loved by the public as other Verdi operas because it is perceived as lacking hummable tunes, Falstaff is nevertheless hailed as a masterpiece in which music and text are in perfect unison. Verdi culled this unloveable, dissolute character from three of Shakespeare's plays - The Merry Wives of Windsor and the two Henry the Fourths - and with the collaboration of librettist Arrigo Boito weaves around him a delightful opera that mirrors the manners of the times, just as Shakespeare intended. And as San Diego Opera's inimitable Nicolas Reveles (Education Director-cum-Lecturer) is quick to point out, the opera is not devoid of memorable melodies; rather, Verdi has strung together many tuneful gems in a style that keeps pace with the twists and turns of the plot and makes the tunes a trifle hard to remember. A listener or audience member who keeps this in mind can happily sit back and enjoy this gem of an opera and quite possibly even agree that Verdi's only comic work is indeed a masterpiece.
