Verdi - Falstaff / Muti, Maestri, Frittoli, Florez, Frontali, Antonacci, Busseto Teatro Verdi

Never mind the one ( picky picky) unfavorable review; almost everyone agrees that this production brings new meaning to the wordsuperlative. I bought this opera a couple years ago, and could not even finish watching it; and sold here so I could buyanother opera. I didn't think it was possible to do this opera well...welllll...it's like Jim Baker's intriguing book "I Was Wrong"!If any of you can imagine in your mind a Fragonard painting..here it is in living color and motion. The SET is ASTOUNDING!! All you community theater people, set builders, costume seamstresses, lighting directors..pay close attention to the consummatemastery laid out before you. Many stages are really too big!..the players look a little like hamsters in a railroad box car...and with lighting dead flat. Scene flats, and flies from above absent in many operas, which most people dislike,leaving us feelign short changed...we want 'magic' we want to be trasnsported...NOT watch an opera in a barren deserted warehouse!A "chiascuro" painting means "light emerging from darkness". This requires a bonafide real artist/draftsman to pull off. Thank God we finally have such a "Master!" designing this production. Every camera angle, every framed shot shows off the superb lighting. and glorious color juxtapostion...backdrops a marvelous exhibition of "trompe l'oeill". It is astonishing to see what can be done with a tiny stage. The bottom floor looks like it holds maybe a couple hundred people, the rest stacked up like a wedding cake in the balconies. All sound technicians know that tall and narrow, like singing in the shower, is the best acoustics of all. This tallness also has ample room above the stage and for stage machinery to raise and lower the "fly". Every square inch is glorious to drink in...so much visual stimulation, one is likely to forget to pay attention to the music-wellllll don't do that! Focus on that music...a small orchestra with phenomenally perfect sound!!...the music obviously revealing the genius of Verdi's last opera in his late 70's...and inspiration to anyone over 60.Barbara Frittoli is just plain beautiful and melifluous ; Inva Mula playing Nannetta has the most lovely soprano I have heard in years of watching and loving operas. Last but not least: Ambrogio Maestri, actually obese, shocks and surprises with his most melifluous, pleasant Baritone..and with enormous range and startling power. It takes great humility as well as prodigious talent, I'm sure, to take on a role of a "despiccable me" character, yet one the audience actually sort of likes! They all get a thunderous applause, but when Ambrogio finally comes out last, it is beyond thunderous applause...screaming with delight applause...and well deserved...WELL DONE! This is opera production mastery...It's how we like our operas done..every person involved enormously talented people.

First, let me say Verdi's Falstaff is not an opera for beginners. If you are just discovering the powerful magic in Rigoletto-Traviata-Trovatore, this opera is quite different, and perhaps you should go through the Don Carlos-Aida-Otello path before trying Falstaff.This DVD is unique in one thing: it's a "chamber version", due to the reduced size of the Teatro Verdi (only 328 seats!) in Bussetto, the small town where Verdi lived his school days and always returned to, disregarding a more glamorous life in Milan or Paris. In this 2001 production, scenery and costumes were "recreated" from a historical performance of 1913, and, as then with Toscanini on the podium, La Scala selected forces under Riccardo Muti came to Bussetto.So, don't expect a super-production, resounding voices, thunderous finales and deafening applause, but rather a small-is-beautiful, intimate performance of this wonderful opera. All singers are very good, women better than men indeed, the scenery and lighting is modest but tasty, the stage direction is nearly perfect and the plot is well served by all players. Highest scores goes to velvet voiced Barbara Frittoli (Alice) and the young lovers Juan Diego Florez (Fenton) and Inva Mula (Nannetta).I've read some acid criticism on the clownish look of young Ambrogio Maestri (Falstaff), and I must agree: making "O sweet Sir John" look as a clown is not the wisest thing to do. Maestri was just 31 at the recording, and though he delivers a superb Falstaff vocally, he simply lacks the "old dog" attitude the role requires. If a seasoned Falstaff is a must for you (or Ford, or Quickly), try the Taddei-Panerai-Ludwig 1982 Salzburg magnificent production, no matter its lesser (older) video and audio quality. Back to costumes and wigs, I think the ladies' show an exaggerated opulence, which is incoherent with the overall austerity of the production. These merry wives don't look as common Windsor Town housewives, but they rather seem to dwell in Windsor Palace, and Alice certainly looks as ravishing as the Queen.But these are minor complaints, and I've cut just one star for that. This DVD contains beautiful widescreen picture, excellent sound (Dolby 5ch and DTS), subtitles in English, German, French, Italian and (very good) Spanish. If , like Verdi, you have ever dreamed about seeing Falstaff represented at your home, get this one. It's close.

Falstaff, Verdi's last opera, premiered in 1893 when the composer was 80 years of age, is full of energy, the pace frenetic, yet his most stingy score with not one note superfluous. In short, compact, a chamber piece despite the complex orchestration.This DVD, a live performance recorded in 2001 in the small and cosy Teatro Verdi in Busseto, close to Verdi's place of birth, a century after his death, is an appropriate venue to showcase this masterpiece. Some have complained that the stage was too small, too crowded, claustrophobic. But Falstaff is a chamber opera, and the tight setting fits admirably.Others complain about the weak peformance of Ambrogio Maestri in the title role. They may be more familiar with the interpretations by Valdengo, Gobbi (especially), Evans, Bruson, Terfel, Pertusi, etc..., where Falstaff's buffonery takes centre stage. True, this performance highlghts the women, Alice (Barbara Fritolli) especially, but also Quickly (Bernadette Manca di Nissa), yet Maestri manages to hold his own. The young lovers, Nanetta (Inva Mula) and Fenton (Juan Diego Florez) are a delightful diversion. At the end, of course, the balance is restored. All are winners and losers.Ruggero Cappuccio's direction is superb. The sets are evocative without being distracting, the characters, in period costumes, move naturally across the small stage, every facial expression, gesture, caught by the camera (thanks to Pierre Cavasillas). No weak links.Riccardo Muti, with a scaled-down Teatro alla Scala orchestra and chorus, produces a sparkling interpretation.A fitting tribute to mark the centenary of the master's departure. And his last opera, a semi-private reflection on life, in a most intimate setting.

A must-see version of this wonderful comic opera. Marvellous performance with Muti and a reduced La Scala orchestra (in the pit of this small and intimate opera house) supporting a superb cast of singers. Highest recommendation.

Ich hatte die Oper Falstaff in Bussetto im Theater zum 100. Todestag von Verdi gesehenund wollte sie jetzt zum 200. Geburtstag noch einmal zu Hause erleben.

Cette représentation qui a plus de 13 ans est tres vivante et avec un jeu d'acteurs merveilleux, surtout coté féminin plus évidemment AMBROGIO MAESTRI qui en FASTAFF trouve un role à sa pointure. Il l'a interprété de nombreuses fois et toujours à la satisfaction de s spectateurs. BARBARA FRITOLLI brille dans le role d'ALICE FORD menant toute la troupe avec entrain. On découvre FLOREZ bien jeune mais avec bien sur sa voix particulière. Peut etre ANNA CATERINA ANTONNACI n'est pas au meme diapason et semble d'après moi faire un peu la fine bouche avec le role qu'on lui a attribué. A connaitre.

In this production Ambrogio Maestri is the perfect Falstaff in every way. Indeed, all of the casting is as near perfect as it's possible to get. The four female characters, Mrs Alice Ford, Nannetta Ford, Mrs Quickly and Mrs Meg Page are delightfully sung and acted by Barbara Frittoli, Inva Mula, Bernadette Manca di Nissa and Anna Caterina Antonacci respectively. Roberto Frontali is a very convincing Ford with the rest of the male characters equally well played.This performance by the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala, Milan, conducted by Riccardo Muti.,was recorded in 2001 at Verdi's birthplace in Busseto as part of many events commemorating the 100th anniversary of the great composer's death. The orchestration could not be better and the staging fits in perfectly with the small theatre, which was built during Verdi's lifetime. The costume designs are an absolute delight.My experience is that music, singing and picture quality are as near perfect as it's possible to get on the small screen and I'm very happy to be able to watch this inspiring performance over and over again as many times as I like. It has to be one of the best performances ever of this work. Viva Verdi!

Diese Aufführung wurde im Geburtsort Verdis, Busseto, 2001 aufgezeichnet. Das kleine Opernhaus(328 Sitzplätze) -Teatro Verdi- stammt noch aus Verdis Lebzeiten. Zum 100. Todestag Verdis konnte dieser Falstaff nach einer historischen Aufführung aus dem Jahre 1913 rekonstruiert werden. Toscanini hatte das Werk damals zum 100. Geburtstag des Komponisten in einer ähnlich reduzierten Orchesterbesetzung dirigiert. Nach Quellen strebte Verdi eine intime Atmosphäre an, als er die Oper ursprünglich in Sant`Agata, nur einige Kilometer von Busseto entfernt, aufführen lassen wollte.Insofern ist dies eine Art "Kammeroper" Falstaff was die orchestrale Ebene betrifft. Für den traditionsorientierten Opernfreund ist mit dem historisch romantisch anmutendem Bühnenbild geradezu ein Optimum an Nostalgie erreicht. Die schauspielerische Interaktion wurde von heutigen Konzepten übernommen, trotzdem nicht ganz so überzeugend.Sängerisch eine fast schon Traumbesetzung. Der junge Ambrogio Maestri gestaltet einen überzeugenden Falstaff. Aber die ganz große Klasse eines z.B. Bryn Terfel erreicht er noch nicht. Diese Wertung ist natürlich extrem subjektiv.Der Ford wird von Roberto Frontali exzellent interpretiert. Der Fenton wird von Juan Diego Florez gesungen. Alice Ford ist Barbara Fritolli, Nanetta ist Inva Mula. Anna- Maria Antonacci singt die Mrs. Meg Page, Bernadette Manca de Nissa ist Mrs. Quickly.Ricardo Muti dirigiert trotz reduziertem Klangkörper auf eine überzeugende, farbstrukturell nuancierende Art.Wer also einen Falstaff der "besonderen Art" in traditionellem, historischem Bühnenbild mit hervorragenden sängerischen Leistungen sehen möchte, ist hier gut bedient.