Falstaff - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Text William Shakespeare & Arrigo Boito


Cast

Conductor
Thomas Guggeis

Directing and lighting
Marco Arturo Marelli

Stage
Marco Arturo Marelli

Costumes
Dagmar Niefind

Falstaff
Luca Salsi

Ford
Boris Pinkhasovich

Fenton
Hiroshi Amako

Alice Ford
Roberta Mantegna

Nannetta
Slávka Zámečníková

Mrs. Quickly
Monika Bohinec

Meg Page
Isabel Signoret


Contents

The fat knight Sir John Falstaff, residing in the inn at the Garter, has no more money to pay his bill. Convinced of his attraction to the female sex, he wants to combine the pleasant with the useful. He writes two identical love letters to Alice Ford and Meg Page, two wealthy bourgeois wives, asking them to go on a date. Together they hatch a plan to fool Falstaff. Mrs. Quickly is sent as a love messenger to invite him to Ford's house between two and three o'clock, because the jealous master of the house is not at home. Falstaff accepts the invitation. Shortly thereafter, Ford pays his respects. He pretends to be Signor Fontana, is in love with Alice, but is not listened to by her. Since he has heard of Falstaff's arts of seduction, he asks him to do amorous preparatory work for a fee. Falstaff boasts that he will hold Alice in his arms today. Ford believes he has been betrayed by Alice and between two and three o'clock storms his house, where Falstaff has already met Alice for his rendezvous. The women just manage to hide him in a laundry basket. Falstaff is emptied into the Thames to laughter.

Falstaff allows himself to be persuaded once again to go on a rendezvous: As a black knight, he is supposed to appear in Windsor's park at night with antlers on his head. But there, the townsfolk disguised as elves and goblins attack him and really hit him. But Ford's plan, the odd doctor Dr. Cajus fails to marry off his daughter Nannetta, who loves poor Fenton. In the general confusion, the right couple finds each other. Falstaff asks who the betrayed is. They agree: everything is fun on earth.



Subject to change.