Falstaff (semi-staged performance)

Mariinsky Theatre, Concert Hall, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Scene 6 from the opera "Falstaff", photo 2

Scene 1 from the opera "Falstaff", photo 10

Scene 2 from the opera "Falstaff", photo 11

Scene 3 from the opera "Falstaff", photo 12

Scene 4 from the opera "Falstaff", photo 13

Scene 5 from the opera "Falstaff", photo 14

All photos (14)

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7 PM

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Important Info

Type: Opera

City: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Starts at: 19:00

Acts: 3

Intervals: 1

Duration: 2h 40min

Sung in: Italian

Titles in: English,Russian

Ticket delivery: E-Tickets

E-tickets: Print at home or at the box office of the event if so specified. You will find more information in your booking confirmation email.

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You can only select the category, and not the exact seats.
If you order 2 or 3 tickets: your seats will be next to each other.
If you order 4 or more tickets: your seats will be next to each other, or, if this is not possible, we will provide a combination of groups of seats (at least in pairs, for example 2+2 or 2+3).

Cast

Performers

Orchestra: Mariinsky Orchestra

Chorus: Mariinsky Chorus

Creators

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi

Music Director: Valery Gergiev

Directed: Andrea De Rosa

Librettist: Arrigo Boito

Author: William Shakespeare

Overview

Verdi nurtured the concept of this comic opera for almost forty years. Contemporaries imagined that Verdi did not possess the gift of comedy, the more so as the composer’s only attempt in the genre at the outset of his career had been the now forgotten Un giorno di regno which was a dismal failure.
Before the premiere of Falstaff the composer occasionally spoke and wrote of that “great sentence”, as he himself described it, with echoes of that selfsame mental anguish. And yet, after the successful premiere of Otello in 1887, and being aware of Verdi’s secret dream, his librettist and friend Arrigo Boito at last, decades later, produced a scenario based on Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor and comic episodes from the Henry IV chronicles. Verdi decided to take a risk and ended up composing something unusual and unexpected. At the gala premiere of Falstaff in Milan in 1893 the public saw a different Verdi.
Falstaff is a grand musical and theatrical cocktail. It contains elements of Italian situation comedy (opera buffa), French comic opera and the fairy-tale opera, it has the pace and vibrancy of the dynamic finales of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and the warm intimacy typical of Rossini’s style.
The musical fabric of Falstaff ruthlessly combines elements of high genres: early church music, a love madrigal and “serious” instrumental music – just take the mocking “Amen” in the first scene, performed by servants as a canon, or the fugue in the finale – a rare visitor to the operatic stage (it is rumoured that Verdi had heard its somewhat “angular” theme in a child’s singing).
And there are sad notes in Verdi’s Falstaff. In the midst of the merriment you can just catch a barely perceptible trace of melancholy. This sadness appears openly only once, at the start of Act III, for a short time, when it becomes clear that Falstaff is suffering. It is not even so much that he is lonely but that his time has passed. Shakespeare’s play contains this idea too: however much of a scoundrel Falstaff may be, he is noble and in Henry IV he acts accordingly. In The Merry Wives of Windsor he is placed in a new and unfamiliar environment: a new ruling elite and middle-class bourgeois like Ford. Here, too, Falstaff is ridiculed and dragged through the mud. Like a big child he plays with the world but the world no longer has any need of him.
Perhaps this links Verdi himself to his character? Perhaps Falstaff was a farewell to theatre – after all, the elderly Verdi must surely have known that he would not, in all probability, complete any more grandiose operas. And, perhaps, this explains the great number of obscure citations and semi-hints at music of the past, particularly the theatre of the past and, especially, Verdi’s own past.
Daniil Shutko

History

Premiere of this production: 09 February 1893, La Scala, Milan

Falstaff is a comic opera in three acts by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV, parts 1 and 2. The work premiered on 9 February 1893 at La Scala, Milan.

Synopsis

Windsor in the times of King Henry IV

Act I
Scene 1
Dr Caius storms into the Garter Inn: Falstaff’s drinking companions Bardolph and Pistol having robbed him bare the day before. Falstaff sends the hard done-by doctor away. He reproaches his friends with their ‘dirty work’ and explains that robberies require skill and time. Sir John is not very well-off himself: his purse is empty; he cannot pay the bill. However, the attentions of two Windsor ladies, the wives of rich husbands, may help his poor situation. Falstaff has written love letters to them and asks his friends to deliver the messages. Bardolph and Pistol refuse to deliver Falstaff’s letters, believing it to be dishonourable. Falstaff is enraged; he sends his page to deliver the letters. Then Falstaff cynically delivers a monologue on the meaning of honour in the modern world, takes a broom and throws out his drinking companions.

Scene 2
The merry wives of Windsor, friends Alice Ford, Meg Page and their neighbor Mrs Quickly meet in Ford’s garden. Nannetta, the Fords’ daughter, is there too. Reading the letters from Falstaff, who has not even bothered to change the text and has sent each woman an identical letter, they are enraged. The women decide to take revenge on their luckless admirer.
At the other end of the garden, the men are discussing their own revenge plan. Bardolph and Pistol warn Ford of the old rogue’s plans. Dr Caius and young Fenton are there, too. Fenton has joined the company so he could meet with his beloved Nannetta. While the ladies and the gentlemen are discussing their respective plans, the love birds can have a couple of moments to themselves. Ford decides to gain Falstaff’s trust in order to find out what he has in mind.

Act II
Scene 1
Falstaff condescendingly accepts Bardolph and Pistol’s repentance, who have seemingly come to the Garter Inn to confess. But in fact they have come not just to confess, they have brought Mrs Quickly with an answer from Meg Page and Alice Ford. Mrs Quickly tells Falstaff that both women are madly in love with him and Mrs Ford has even appointed a rendezvous.
The minute Mrs Quickly leaves, Bardolph ushers in Ford, disguised as a businessman called Fontana. Ford gives Falstaff a tightly stuffed wallet, persuading him to help seduce Alice. Falstaff assures Fontana of his success in the affair: as it happens, Alice’s husband is absent and he plans to visit her. Ford is furious and jealous. He envisages how he will punish his unfaithful wife. However, he maintains self-control and leaves the hotel with Falstaff, who has decked himself out in fine clothes.

Scene 2
At Ford’s house the merry wives are laughing and preparing for the rendezvous with Falstaff. They bring in the laundry basket, open up the folding screens. Falstaff enters in his finery and begins to make his move on Alice, who is alone. Unexpectedly, Mrs Quickly enters and warns the couple about Meg’s coming. Terrified, Falstaff hides behind the screens. When Meg, feigning terror, tells Alice about her husband’s alleged arrival, Ford actually bursts into the room with a crowd of witnesses. He searches for Falstaff high and low, even checks the laundry basket. With Falstaff nowhere around, the jealous Ford rushes to search the other rooms. The women hide Falstaff in a laundry basket, while Nannetta and Fenton, seizing their moment, hide behind the screens. Soon Ford hears kissing sounds. Enraged, he destroys the screen and sees the confused lovers. The infuriated Ford continues his search. Alice has the servants dump the contents of the laundry basket into the gutter outside. She invites her husband to see Sir John’s current whereabouts.

Act III
Scene 1
Before the Garter Inn, Falstaff tries to resign himself to his humiliation. Old Sir John is feeling lonely and forlorn. His hair is now salt and pepper and his time will come soon. The host brings some hot wine and Falstaff's spirits are instantly lifted. Suddenly Mrs Quickly appears with a letter from Alice. Falstaff wants to throw her out, but she claims that Alice has nothing to do with what has transpired. On the contrary, Alice wants to see him again and appoints a midnight meeting at Herne’s Oak in the Windsor Park. Mrs Quickly explains that Falstaff has to disguise himself as Herne the Hunter, who has hanged himself from the oak. No-one will recognize Falstaff as the place has long been reputed to be haunted by Herne’s spirit. ‘Love loves mystery’, Mrs Quickly explains. The whole Ford family, Meg, Fenton and Caius witness the scene.
Convinced of Falstaff’s simple naivety they plan to dress up as fairies, elves, witches and evil spirits to scare the living daylights out of him. Ford promises Caius to betroth him to his daughter that same night. He will bless the disguised pair, the monk and the queen of fairies. Mrs Quickly accidentally overhears the conversation and decides to disrupt the plan.

Scene 2
At midnight, Fenton searches for Nannetta in the Windsor Park. She hears his voice and hurries to meet him. The meeting is cut short by Alice. She convinces the couple that they need to follow her instructions if they hope for a happy ending. Falstaff appears on the stroke of midnight. He is dressed as Herne the Hunter. He sees Alice and rushes to confess his passionate love for her. A cry for help can be heard in the distance and the coquette feigns terror and escapes. Terrified, Falstaff falls to the ground. He is surrounded by ‘supernatural creatures’. Nanetta delivers a spell. The masked jokesters attack the old knight, pinch him, lash him with nettles, role him on the ground, poke fun at him and insult him until he repents of his sins. Then they all remove their masks and the astounded Falstaff realises that he has been duped.
But this is not the only revelation of the magical evening. Ford’s planned engagement of Nannetta to Caius miscarries, and thanks to Alice’s slyness Nannetta becomes engaged to Fenton, while Caius is engaged to Bardolph dressed as a fairy. Falstaff is glad that he is not the only one who has been made a fool of and declares:

All the world is a joke!
Man is born a jester!
Seriousness merely
Clouds the reason.
We all are fools!
And every man
laughs at the others’ folly.
But he laughs well
Who has the last laugh.

Time: The reign of Henry IV, 1399 to 1413
Place: Windsor, England

Act 1

A room at the Garter Inn

Falstaff and his servants, Bardolfo and Pistola, are drinking at the inn. Dr Caius bursts in and accuses Falstaff of burgling his house and Bardolfo of picking his pocket. Falstaff laughs at him; he leaves, vowing only to go drinking with honest, sober companions in future. When the innkeeper presents a bill for the wine, Falstaff tells Bardolfo and Pistola that he needs more money, and plans to obtain it by seducing the wives of two rich men, one of whom is Ford. Falstaff hands Bardolfo a love-letter to one of the wives (Alice Ford), and hands Pistola an identical letter addressed to the other (Meg). Bardolfo and Pistola refuse to deliver the letters, claiming that honour prevents them from obeying him. Falstaff loses his temper and rants at them, saying that "honour" is nothing but a word, with no meaning (Monologue: L'onore! Ladri ... ! / "Honour! You rogues ... !") Brandishing a broom, he chases them out of his sight.

Ford's garden

Alice and Meg have received Falstaff's letters. They compare them, see that they are identical and, together with Mistress Quickly and Nannetta Ford, resolve to punish Falstaff. Meanwhile, Bardolfo and Pistola warn Ford of Falstaff's plan. Ford resolves to disguise himself and visit Falstaff and set a trap for him.

A young, handsome fellow called Fenton is in love with Ford's daughter Nannetta, but Ford wants her to marry Dr. Caius, who is wealthy and respected. Fenton and Nannetta enjoy a moment of privacy, but are interrupted by the return of Alice, Meg and Mistress Quickly. The act ends with an ensemble in which the women and the men separately plan revenge on Falstaff, the women gleefully anticipating an enjoyable prank, while the men angrily mutter dire threats.

Act 2
A room at the Garter Inn

Falstaff is alone at the inn. Bardolfo and Pistola, now in the pay of Ford, enter and beg Falstaff to allow them to re-enter his service, secretly planning to spy on him for Ford. Mistress Quickly enters and tells him that Alice is in love with him and will be alone in Ford's home that afternoon, from two o'clock until three o'clock, just time for an amorous dalliance. Falstaff celebrates his potential success ("Va, vecchio John" / "Go, old Jack, go your own way").

Ford arrives, masquerading as a wealthy stranger, using the false name "Signor Fontana". He tells Falstaff that he is in love with Alice, but she is too virtuous to entertain him. He offers to pay Falstaff to use his impressive title and (alleged) charms to seduce her away from her virtuous convictions, after which he ("Fontana") might have a better chance of seducing her himself. Falstaff, delighted at the prospect of being paid to seduce the wealthy and beautiful woman, agrees, and reveals that he already has a rendezvous arranged with Alice for two o'clock – the hour when Ford is always absent from home. Ford is consumed with jealousy, but conceals his feelings. Falstaff withdraws to a private room to change into his finest clothes, and Ford, left alone, reflects on the evil of an uncertain marriage and vows to have revenge (È sogno o realtà? / "Is it a dream or reality?"). When Falstaff returns in his finery, they leave together with elaborate displays of mutual courtesy.

A room in Ford's house

The three women plot their strategy ("Gaie Comari di Windsor" / "Merry wives of Windsor, the time has come!"). Alice notices that Nannetta is too unhappy and anxious to share their gleeful anticipation. This is because Ford plans to marry her to Dr Caius, a man old enough to be her grandfather; the women reassure her that they will prevent it. Mistress Quickly announces Falstaff's arrival, and Mistress Ford has a large laundry basket and a screen placed in readiness. Falstaff attempts to seduce Alice with tales of his past youth and glory ("Quand'ero paggio del Duca di Norfolk" / "When I was page to the Duke of Norfolk I was slender"). Mistress Quickly rushes in, shouting that Ford has returned home unexpectedly with a retinue of henchmen to catch his wife's lover. Falstaff hides first behind the screen, but realizes that Ford will likely look for him there. The women urge him to hide in the laundry basket, which he does. In the meantime Fenton and Nannetta hide behind the screen for another moment of privacy. Ford and his men storm in and search for Falstaff, and hear the sound of Fenton and Nannetta kissing behind the screen. They assume it is Falstaff with Alice, but instead they find the young lovers. Ford orders Fenton to leave. Badly cramped and almost suffocating in the laundry hamper, Falstaff moans with discomfort while the men resume the search of the house. Alice orders her servants to throw the laundry basket through the window into the River Thames, where Falstaff endures the jeers of the crowd. Ford, seeing that Alice had never intended to betray him, smiles happily.

Act 3
Before the inn

Falstaff, cold and discouraged, glumly curses the sorry state of the world. Some mulled wine soon improves his mood. Mistress Quickly arrives and delivers another invitation to meet Alice. Falstaff at first wants nothing to do with it, but she persuades him. He is to meet Alice at midnight at Herne's Oak in Windsor Great Park dressed up as the ghost of Herne the Hunter who, according to local superstition, haunts the area near the tree, and appears there at midnight with a band of supernatural spirits. He and Mistress Quickly go inside the inn. Ford has realized his error in suspecting his wife, and they and their allies have been watching secretly. They now concoct a plan for Falstaff's punishment: dressed as supernatural creatures, they will ambush and torment him at midnight. Ford draws Dr. Caius aside and privately proposes a separate plot to marry him to Nannetta: Nannetta will be disguised as Queen of the Fairies, Caius will wear a monk's costume, and Ford will join the two of them with a nuptial blessing. Mistress Quickly overhears and quietly vows to thwart Ford's scheme.

Herne's Oak in Windsor Park on a moonlit midnight

Fenton arrives at the oak tree and sings of his happiness ("Dal labbro il canto estasiato vola" / "From my lips, a song of ecstasy flies") ending with "Lips that are kissed lose none of their allure." Nannetta enters to finish the line with "Indeed, they renew it, like the moon." The women arrive and disguise Fenton as a monk, telling him that they have arranged to spoil Ford's and Caius's plans. Nannetta, as the Fairy Queen, instructs her helpers ("Sul fil d'un soffio etesio" / "On the breath of a fragrant breeze, fly, nimble spirits") before all the characters arrive on the scene. Falstaff's attempted love scene with Alice is interrupted by the announcement that witches are approaching, and the men, disguised as elves and fairies, soundly thrash Falstaff. In the middle of the beating, he recognizes Bardolfo in disguise. The joke is over, and Falstaff acknowledges that he has received his due. Ford announces that a wedding shall ensue. Caius and the Queen of the Fairies enter. A second couple, also in masquerade, ask Ford to deliver the same blessing for them as well. Ford conducts the double ceremony. Caius finds that instead of Nannetta, his bride is the disguised Bardolfo, and Ford has unwittingly blessed the marriage of Fenton and Nannetta. Ford accepts the fait accompli with good grace. Falstaff, pleased to find himself not the only dupe, proclaims that all the world is folly, and all are figures of fun (Tutto nel mondo è burla ... Tutti gabbati!...Ma ride ben chi ride La risata final. / "Everything in the world is a jest ... but he laughs well who laughs the final laugh"). The entire company repeats his proclamation in a bewildering ten-voice fugue.

Venue Info

Mariinsky Theatre - Saint Petersburg
1 Theatre Square

The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th-century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. Through most of the Soviet era, it was known as the Kirov Theatre. Today, the Mariinsky Theatre is home to the Mariinsky Ballet, Mariinsky Opera and Mariinsky Orchestra. Since Yuri Temirkanov's retirement in 1988, the conductor Valery Gergiev has served as the theatre's general director.

The theatre is named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Tsar Alexander II. There is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer. The theatre's name has changed throughout its history, reflecting the political climate of the time.

The theatre building is commonly called the Mariinsky Theatre. The companies that operate within it have for brand recognition purposes retained the Kirov name, acquired during the Soviet era to commemorate the assassinated Leningrad Communist Party leader Sergey Kirov (1886–1934).

The Imperial drama, opera and ballet troupe in Saint Petersburg was established in 1783, at the behest of Catherine the Great, although an Italian ballet troupe had performed at the Russian court since the early 18th century. Originally, the ballet and opera performances were given in the wooden Karl Knipper Theatre on Tsaritsa Meadow, near the present-day Tripartite Bridge (also known as the Little Theatre or the Maly Theatre). The Hermitage Theatre, next door to the Winter Palace, was used to host performances for an elite audience of aristocratic guests invited by the Empress.

A permanent theatre building for the new company of opera and ballet artists was designed by Antonio Rinaldi and opened in 1783. Known as the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre the structure was situated on Carousel Square, which was renamed Theatre Square in honour of the building. Both names – "Kamenny" (Russian word for "stone") and "Bolshoi" (Russian word for "big") – were coined to distinguish it from the wooden Little Theatre. In 1836, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was renovated to a design by Albert Cavos (son of Catterino Cavos, an opera composer), and served as the principal theatre of the Imperial Ballet and opera.

On 29 January 1849, the Equestrian circus (Конный цирк) opened on Theatre Square. This was also the work of the architect Cavos. The building was designed to double as a theatre. It was a wooden structure in the then-fashionable neo-Byzantine style. Ten years later, when this circus burnt down, Albert Cavos rebuilt it as an opera and ballet house with the largest stage in the world. With a seating capacity of 1,625 and a U-shaped Italian-style auditorium, the theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its imperial patroness, Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

Under Yuri Temirkanov, Principal Conductor from 1976 to 1988, the Opera Company continued to stage innovative productions of both modern and classic Russian operas. Although functioning separately from the Theatre’s Ballet Company, since 1988 both companies have been under the artistic leadership of Valery Gergiev as Artistic Director of the entire Theatre.

The Opera Company has entered a new era of artistic excellence and creativity. Since 1993, Gergiev’s impact on opera there has been enormous. Firstly, he reorganized the company’s operations and established links with many of the world's great opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra Bastille, La Scala, La Fenice, the Israeli Opera, the Washington National Opera and the San Francisco Opera. Today, the Opera Company regularly tours to most of these cities.

Gergiev has also been innovative as far as Russian opera is concerned: in 1989, there was an all-Mussorgsky festival featuring the composer’s entire operatic output. Similarly, many of Prokofiev’s operas were presented from the late 1990s. Operas by non-Russian composers began to be performed in their original languages, which helped the Opera Company to incorporate world trends. The annual international "Stars of the White Nights Festival" in Saint Petersburg, started by Gergiev in 1993, has also put the Mariinsky on the world’s cultural map. That year, as a salute to the imperial origins of the Mariinsky, Verdi's La forza del destino, which received its premiere in Saint Petersburg in 1862, was produced with its original sets, costumes and scenery. Since then, it has become a characteristic of the "White Nights Festival" to present the premieres from the company’s upcoming season during this magical period, when the hours of darkness practically disappear as the summer solstice approaches.

Presently, the Company lists on its roster 22 sopranos (of whom Anna Netrebko may be the best known); 13 mezzo-sopranos (with Olga Borodina familiar to US and European audiences); 23 tenors; eight baritones; and 14 basses. With Gergiev in charge overall, there is a Head of Stage Administration, a Stage Director, Stage Managers and Assistants, along with 14 accompanists.