Falstaff
Opera in 3 acts
Libretto by Arrigo Boito based on The Merry Widows of Windsor by Shakespeare
First performed at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, February 9th, 1893
Sir John Falstaff, the fat-bellied drunken knight, attempts to avoid ruin by writing two identical love letters to Wives of Windsor, Mrs Ford and Mrs Page. Amused, but nevertheless rather angry, the two team up, and with the help of their friends exercise their talents to teach the ridiculous knight a lesson, throwing him in the Thames and traumatising him in the haunted forest.
Sir John Falstaff Roberto Frontali*
Ford Sebastian Catana
Mrs. Alice Ford Nicole Heaston*
Nannetta Angela Kerrison*
Fenton Antonio Figueroa*
Mrs. Quickly Ann McMahon Quintero*
Mrs. Meg Page Kendall Gladen*
Bardolfo Rodolphe Briand
Pistola Marcin Habela
Dottor Cajus Stuart Patterson
Conductor Nir Kabaretti
Director Arnaud Bernard
Set designer Alessandro Camera
Costume designer Carla Ricotti
Lighting designer Patrick Méeüs
Choir master Véronique Carrot
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
Opéra de Lausanne choir
Events around the production
Espace 2 programmes
Disques en lice: Monday 20 February, special programme with DVD projection,
live recording with an audience at Studio 15 RTS in Lausanne, 8PM
(rerun Saturday 25 February, 3 PM)
Avant-Scène: Saturday 17 March, 7PM
Work to be broadcast in À l’Opéra: Saturday 28 April, 8PM
Forum Opéra Conference
Tuesday 6 March, 6:45PM, Grande Salle at Conservatory HEMU.
Speaker: Paul-André Demierre
Entrance fee: CHF 15.- / 12.-
Conference at Lausanne University
Wednesday 14 March, 5:15PM, Grange de Dorigny
"Settling of scores in the gardens of Décaméron: Falstaff and the end of an era"
Speaker: Anselm Gerhard (Bern University)
Free entrance.
« I live with the huge Sir John, with his enormous belly; that smasher of beds, breaker of chairs, exhauster of mules, that skin of sweet wine, that moving lump of lard, among the bottles of sherry and the pleasures of the hot kitchen of the Garter Inn…Sketching characters in just a few lines, creating intrigue, squeezing all the juice out of that huge Shakespearian orange without letting the useless pips escape into the glass, writing with colour, clearly and concisely, drawing up the scenes so that the result keeps the organic unity of a « piece of music » as well as being something different, making the joyful comedy come alive from beginning to end with a natural and communicative joy, it’s difficult, difficult, difficult! And yet it has to look simple, simple, simple!... »
Arrigo Boito, librettist of Falstaff to Giuseppe Verdi