Commedia lirica in three acts
Music by Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Libretto by Arrigo Boito adapted from Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV
Creation: Milan, Teatro alla Scala, 9 February 1893
Co-production by Opéra de
Monte-Carlo and Opéra-Théâtre de MetzFriday 25 January (gala), Tuesday 29 January, Thursday 31 January, at 8 pm and Sunday 27 January, at 3 pm Opéra de Monte-Carlo - Salle Garnier
Following the indescribable triumph of the opening night of Othello, Giuseppe Verdi aspired only to return to his quiet, modest life in Sant’Agata. But a social visit from the shrewd Arrigo Boito changed his mind. Boito suggested an opera based on William Shakespeare's play, The Merry Wives of Windsor. As his genius librettist had known, Verdi was unable to resist the proposal and began setting the adventures of Sir
John Falstaff to music. And it is precisely the deft way that Verdi's music responds to Boito's words that makes this such a masterpiece. The score is brimming with such verve that it is astonishing to think it came from the pen of an eighty year old man. Is Falstaff a negative of Othello? The composer sweeps aside any ambiguity by crowing his final opera with the majestic fugue "Tutto nel mondo è burla" ("Everything in the world is a jest"), the last laugh of a character often portrayed as bitter and dark, but ultimately pacified in the twilight of his life. The production by the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, created in 2010 and hailed by the international press, orchestrates an irresistible meeting between the characters of Shakespeare and the feathered ones of d’Edmond Rostand's Chantecler.
Collaboration:
Choir of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra
Salle Garnier - Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Dates:
♦ 25 January 2019 - 8 pm (Gala)
♦ 27 January 2019 - 3 pm
♦ 29 January 2019 - 8 pm
♦ 31 January 2019 - 8 pm