Opera

Verdi's Falstaff

Richard Jones (stage director), Vladimir Jurowski (conductor) – With Christopher Purves (Falstaff), Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Mistress Quickly), Jennifer Holloway (Meg Page)...

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Cast

Richard Jones — Stage director

Ultz — Set designer

Mimi Jordan Sherin — Lighting

Linda Dobell — Movement director

Christopher Purves — Falstaff

Dina Kuznetsova — Alice Ford

Tassis Christoyannis — Ford

Jennifer Holloway — Meg Page

Marie-Nicole Lemieux — Mistress Quickly

Adriana Kucerová — Nannetta

Bülent Bezdüz — Fenton

Peter Hoare — Dr Caius

Alasdair Elliott — Bardolph

The Glyndebourne Chorus

Thomas Blunt — Chorus director

Program notes

Falstaff in Richard Jones' delightful production for the Glyndebourne Festival.

Although it contains elements of tragic heroism, typical of Verdi’s operas, it is comedy that is very much to the fore in Falstaff. No aria di bravura is to be found, as would be the case in Bellini's or Puccini's works. In Falstaff, Verdi uses the music to simply hold the storyline together.

Drawing inspiration from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff is a shallow, vain and pitiful character, not a hero. It is the women in the story who are the true heroes. They trick the lustful Fasltaff and Mrs Quickly best expresses the moral of the story: women are cunning as a fox!

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