Falstaff- Giuseppe Verdi

For anyone who doesn't know, I am above all an opera singer. Seeing as how most people on this site are instrumentalists or pianists, this may or may not appeal to them. However, I would like to express my approval of Verdi's last comic opera "Falstaff". This opera, based on Shakespeares "Merry Wives of Windsor", is the last bit of opera music Verdi ever put to paper. It concludes with a Fugue sung by all 14 major characters and chorus, but at no time to any two voices have the main theme at the same time. It is a marvelous piece of art, and I recommend all to find a recording or study the score.

On a side note, Florida State University may or may not be performing Falstaff next Fall, and I may or may not be auditioning for either of the top three baritone roles.

Sean Christopher Stork

Ah! Another singer!

Benvenuto, amico!

I'm ashamed to admit I've never heard "Falstaff" all the way through, despite the fact that I had a mentor who (at 400+ pounds) specialised in the title role, and I love the snippets I've heard of Mistress Quickly's music - true contralto stuff. Despite my mentor's fine voice, he wasn't fit for much else. I did hear him sing a wonderful Bartolo in "The Marriage of Figaro," though.

Must endeavour to get my hands on a recording of Falstaff.

Nice, but Verdi was a little old, influences were sometimes too Gilbert and Sullivan-esque and he was always a guy of tragedies: he just wrote a comedy because of a comment Rossini made about him.

Still, nice CD to get :angry:

Gilbert and Sullivan-esque? Are you proposing that Verdi was taking props from G and S?! The grandeur and magnitude of Verdi's ability make opinions like that seem impossible. Considering G and S was on a playing field closer to Musical Theater, and Verdi's works were full blown operas. Operas of the highest degree of difficulty, I might add. Also, in regards to the dramatic influence used by Verdi, no one can geny he had great skill as a composer of opera seria, but that should certainly not be held against him. Remember that Rossini wrote mostly comedies and Puccini wrote mostly tragedies. There really is no one composer who excelled in having an ecclectic taste in genres.

It's not extremely G and S: there are only a few bars, when it comes to melody and harmony, perhaps also due to the genre and the fact that they were Verdi's contemporanies...well, it really doesn't surprise me.

Verdi wrote a comedy back in 1840 that flopped, and was truly bad. So he just wrote tragedy. It was then he read a comment Rossini made about him: "Verdi is unable of writing a comic opera". He got so mad, he finally accepted the "Falstaff" libretto he had previously rejected and that is it.