Conductor: Steven White
Director: Chas Rader-Shieber
Scenic Designer: Cameron Anderson
Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece of wit, charm, and musical ingenuity offers a bright and buoyant finale to AVA’s 91st opera season. Completed when he was nearly 80, Verdi’s final opera stands as a triumphant departure from the grand dramas that defined his earlier career. Falstaff is a bold and witty adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, with shades of Henry IV, brought to life through a bubbling libretto by Arrigo Boito.
At the center of this fast-paced comedy is the bumbling yet endearing rogue, Sir John Falstaff, who misguidedly attempts to woo two clever married women for financial gain. What follows is a riotous chain of mischief, disguises, and comeuppance, as the clever women turn the tables on the devious knight. Verdi’s music mirrors the humor and vitality of the story, with dazzling ensembles and spirited arias.
Since its premiere in 1893, Falstaff has remained one of opera’s crowning comic achievements – a joyous, sophisticated celebration of folly, resilience, and the human spirit, with a dazzling finale that wholeheartedly declares: “All the world is a jest!”
Sung in Italian with English supertitles.