Falstaff

01/01/1993

|

2hrs 6min

|

Music

STORY

It is to composer and librettist Arrigo Boito and his constant pestering of the octogenarian Verdi that there remained within him one last great comedy fighting to get out that we owe this absolute miracle of an opera. Produced in 1893 as Verdi turned 80 there is much in this masterpiece that can be identified as a modernist neoclassical work. The use of short motifs instead of long arioso melodic lines, the spry and reduced orchestral textures and the lack of a single 'stand and deliver' dramatic declamatory aria all serve to make this more of a 20th century work than an example of 19th century late-Romanticism.

CAST & CREW

    Cast

  • Mirella Freni
  • Barbara Bonney
  • Paul Plishka
  • Bruno Pola
  • Marilyn Horne

    Directors

  • Franco Zeffirelli
  • Paul Mills
  • Brian Large

INFORMATION

    Production Companies

  • Deutsche Grammophon

    Production Countries

  • United States of America

LANGUAGES

  • Italian