On 2007-12-30 TODD KAY, wrote: Moderation in the pursuit of opera is by no means a vice, and this traditional and highly refined 1982 Covent Garden FALSTAFF surely is preferable to the 1999 performance from the same house. The latter (on Opus Arte DVD) is the well-cast but hyperkinetic and comedically overexplicit Terfel/Vick/Haitink production, notorious for such touches as Falstaff´s waterbed, his carrot-shaped suggestion of ´excitement´ in one scene, and for its eye-searingly bright Day-Glo colors. Still, while admiring much of what the 1982 has to offer, one may have the gnawing feeling that it is a bit pedantic -- more of an exercise in corrective point-making than a vital performance. Maestro Carlo Maria Giulini and stage director Richard Eyre work together to create a FALSTAFF of unusual restraint and sobriety (a small example, among many that accumulate: neither the Falstaff nor the Ford is allowed to sing his imitation of Alice Ford in the usual falsetto). One is grateful for their scrubbing away of that which is overly broad and vulgar, but something has been lost in wit and brio, and the conservative stage direction tends toward squareness. The performance seems to improve as it progresses, but parts of it -- notably Giulini´s exquisite shaping of the final scene´s music -- ultimately register more strongly than does the whole. The old-fashioned sets are inoffensive but drab (a somewhat shadowy picture quality contributes), and the Windsor Park representation, a single tree of enormous diameter, would have been put to better use in a production of Wagner´s RING.
The distinguished cast carries out its assignments to varying effect. Renato Bruson does wonderfully expressive things with his large, dark eyes and with the part of his face that is not hidden by Falstaff´s glued-on facial hair. His opportunities to demonstrate his comedic skills are limited, and he seems hemmed in as a result (there is a wittier Falstaff than this in him, probably even today). He is shrewd enough to make the most of the Giulini/Eyre milieu, seizing all the verbal opportunities presented by Falstaff´s dramatic Act III soliloquies at the Garter Inn and Windsor Park. Leo Nucci, not usually a great favorite of mine, is just about perfect as this blustering, vaguely puritanical Ford. Dalmacio Gonzalez, young and handsome and inherently good-natured, is a Fenton who looks as though he stepped right out of the pages of the libretto, but he is less satisfying vocally, and may not have been in best form when this was taped. He cannot muster adequate volume to sing out assertively over Verdi´s brilliant orchestral/vocal chatter at the close of Act I Scene 2, and his Windsor Park arietta is satisfactory at best. The women are beautiful -- Brenda Boozers´s witty Meg Page extravagantly so -- and they are becomingly costumed, although it was a bad idea to so excessively pad Lucia Valentini-Terrani´s Mistress Quickly. The idea, I suppose, was to make her look enormous to visually reinforce her status as the fat knight´s foil, but the effect is not worth the trouble. The mezzo, her middle unconvincingly out of proportion to the rest of her, only looks gingerly and uncomfortable in her movements. She does not have the ideal depth and amplitude of sound for this role (no booming, Barbierian ´Reverenza´ will be heard here), but she eventually wins the listener over. Like all of the most clever and musical ones, over the course of an evening she can at least partially persuade you that she has overcome miscasting. The finest performance of all is that of Barbara Hendricks, whose small, sweet voice and gracious demeanor make her a first-rate Nannetta. Her singing of the Fairy Queen´s song has that sort of purity of tone, directness of phrasing, and unaffected, pristine beauty that make you want to find an opera skeptic immediately and play it for him or her, so sure are you that it will result in conversion. Katia Ricciarelli promises much on paper as Alice Ford; this seems as likely as any role in the repertoire to be her best. But in the event, she alternates attractive and assured vocalism with an unsupported half-voice that strikes me as more appropriate for pop or cabaret. Worse, her acting of the part, rife with hands-on-hips, head-tossing gestures, is subtly alienating, suggesting not the wisdom, savvy, and good humor one desires from an Alice Ford but something coy, self-regarding, very nearly arrogant.
Though video director Brian Large does not bring his best game technically (at a few moments of adjustment, the picture momentarily slips out of focus), he is reliably good in elucidating the action. His clarification of the complicated comedic business in Act II Scene 2 is exemplary, and all the more valuable as the subtitles are more sparse and terse than one wants in this wordy opera. The picture, sound, and packaging are of Kultur´s highest quality, which is to say they clear the bar of adequacy. It is a 25-year-old FALSTAFF that looks and sounds like a 25-year-old FALSTAFF, no more and no less. A somewhat recessed recording prevents one from savoring Giulini´s typically cultivated balances and sonorities. On my DVD player, there was a notably rough layer change near the beginning of Act II Scene 2. Mileage can vary in such matters, but this was enough of a screen freeze for brief mention. It was placed in a quiet spot so that no harm was done to the music, fortunately.
FALSTAFF is a lucky composition in that it rarely receives a ´bad´ recorded performance, and no opera is more worthy of being heard and collected in multiple renditions. It is a work that rewards endless study -- the opera written by a very old man is, appropriately, an opera with which a listener can grow old. The Giulini DVD, like its Los Angeles audio equivalent on DG, is one worth having, but short of my top tier. As it happens, there is a DVD performance on EuroArts -- the 2001 Muti/Scala recreation of a 1913 production for the Teatro Verdi, starring Ambrogio Maestri and Barbara Frittoli -- that almost precisely duplicates the strengths of this one, and does much to fill this one´s gaps. Both performances feature scrupulous preparation and leadership by a great Italian conductor who has conviction and a strong point of view on the work. Both are traditional in their staging and scenery, attempting to convey an authentic Elizabethan flavor. Both feature casts of pedigree. But Muti/Scala gives us orchestral commentary of altogether more variety, color and energy; does more justice to the crucial comedic elements of the work without skimping on those parts which are reflective, lyrical, or autumnal; is manifestly better at the levels of picture and sound; has a more sympathetically acted Alice; has a voice of precisely the right weight and timbre for Quickly; and in Juan Diego Florez boasts possibly the best Fenton I have ever come across in any medium. There is too much of value in the Giulini performance for me to recommend against it, but ´the better is the enemy of the good,´ as they say, and it does not threaten Muti/EuroArts as my first choice.. And summed up by saying Sobrio. Currently Verdi - Falstaff has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
Verdi - Falstaff can also be found in the following searches:
Kultur Video claimed Opera in three acts The Royal Opera Covent Garden Music GIUSEPPE VERDILibretto ARRIGO BOITOProducer: RONALD EYRESet Designer: HAYDEN GRIFFINCostume Designer: MICHAEL STENNETTSir John Falstaff: RENATO BRUSONPistol: WILLIAM WILDERMANNBardolph: FRANCIS EGERTONHost of the Garter Inn: GEORGE HERSONDoctor Caius: JOHN DOBSONMistress Meg Page: BRENDA BOOZERMistress Alice Ford: KATIA RICCIARELLINannetta: BARBARA HENDRICKSMistress Quickly:LUCIA VALENTINI-TERRANIFord : LEO NUCCIFenton: DALMACIO GONZALEZThe Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera HouseConductor CARLO MARIA GIULINIWhen Carlo Maria Giulini returned to conducting public performances of opera after an absence of fourteen years, he chose for the occasion one of the enduring comic masterpieces – Verdi’s Falstaff. The composer was almost eighty when he broke the six-year silence following the premiere of Otello, and startled the musical world by revealing his complete mastery of comic invention. It is true that much of the success for this consummate work of genius is due to a libretto of extraordinary brilliance by Arrigo Boito, who took the substance of the piece from The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, but nothing can detract from Verdi’s capacity for matching it with music of real wit and humour.Renato Bruson, the renowned interpreter of Verdi and one of the leading lyric baritones of the day, sings the title role. Katia Ricciarelli leads the trio of merry wives with Lucia Valentini-Terrani as Mistress Quickly and Brenda Boozer as Meg Page. Leo Nucci sings the role of Ford and the young lovers are here portrayed by Dalmacio Gonzalez and Barbara Hendricks. Stunning designs by Hayden Griffen and Michael Stennett provide the perfect setting for this witty interpretation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. ´The operatic event of the year´ THE SUNDAY TIMES
Item that are similar to Verdi - Falstaff can be found at: