Teatro del Maggio

The irresistible rogue Sir John Falstaff, is a clumsy rascal who spends his days at the tables of the tavern. He decides to use all of his potbellied charm to seduce the rich Alice and Meg, in order to replenish his poor finances, but he has not reckoned with the cunning of the Wives of Windsor. Enthralling music, a whirlwind of love letters, a dive into the Thames, witches and goblins - the final, immense masterpiece by Giuseppe Verdi returns to Florence conducted by Zubin Mehta, with a staging by Luca Ronconi.

Falstaff
Lyric comedy in three acts
Libretto by Arrigo Boito
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Editor: G. Ricordi & C., Milano

Co-production with Fondazione Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari

Sung in Italian. Surtitles in English and Italian.

Duration
Act I - 37 minutes
Interval - 25 minutes
Act II - 57 minutes
Interval - 25 minutes
Act III - 46 minutes
Total duration: 3 hours 10 minutes

Artists

Conductor
Zubin Mehta

Director
Luca Ronconi

Scenes
Tiziano Santi

Costumes
Maurizio Millenotti

Disegno luci
A. J. Weissbard

Choir director
Lorenzo Fratini

Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Sir John Falstaff
Ambrogio Maestri / Roberto De Candia (12)

Fenton
Yijie Shi

Ford, marito d'Alice
Roberto De Candia / Alessandro Luongo (2, 4, 12)

Mrs. Alice Ford
Eva Mei

Nannetta, figlia d'Alice
Ekaterina Sadovnikova

Mrs. Quickly
Elena Zilio

Mrs. Meg Page
Laura Polverelli

Bardolfo
Gianluca Sorrentino

Pistola
Mario Luperi

Dr. Cajus
Carlo Bosi

Approfondimenti

VIDEO

Falstaff c'est moi: intervista ad Ambrogio Maestri

Falstaff c'est moi: interview with Ambrogio Maestri

VIDEO

Falstaff's angry wives: interview with Luca Ronconi

VIDEO

Ho incontrato Falstaff a scuola: intervista a Zubin Mehta

I met Falstaff at school: interview with Zubin Mehta

ACT I

Part One
At the Tavern of the Garter, Dr. Caius complains of being robbed by Bardolfo and Pistola, servants of Sir John Falstaff. After having discharged the two villains, he realizes that he does not have enough money to pay the host's bill and so decides to woo Alice Ford and Meg Page, two wealthy ladies of Windsor.

Part Two
In the garden of Ford's house, Alice and Meg realize that they have received two perfectly identical love letters from Falstaff. Offended, together with Quickly and Nannetta, Alice's daughter, they immediately decide to take revenge. Meanwhile, Ford, warned of Falstaff's plans by Bardolfo and Pistola, meditates revenge along with Dr. Caius, and Fenton, Nannetta's young suitor.

ACT II

Part One
After Quickly has invited Falstaff on a date with Alice for the afternoon, Ford appears under the assumed name of Mr. Fontana. He begs him to seduce Alice so that, once she has lost her virtue, she will finally concede herself also to him. Falstaff confesses that he already has an appointment with Alice, increasing Ford's jealousy terribly.

Part Two
While Falstaff is busy courting Alice, Meg rushes into the house and confirms that Ford, who has discovered everything, wants to kill his wife's lover. The announcement is part of the joke and the knight is hiding behind a screen. Then Quickly bursts in, stating that Ford really is coming. Falstaff, now hiding in a laundry basket, is thrown into the Thames.

ACT III

Part One
Quickly returns to Falstaff to make a new appointment, this time at the oak of Herne, at midnight. He must, however, dress as the Black Hunter, with a huge pair of horns on his head.

Part Two
In the park, Falstaff is terrified by the inhabitants of Windsor disguised as fantastic creatures. Discovering the hoax, and celebrating the marriage of Nanetta and Fenton, he can only reveal the moral of the story: All the world is a joke!

GIUSEPPE VERDI

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was born in Le Roncole di Busseto, near Parma, on October 10, 1813. He learned the rudiments of music by playing the organ in the local parish and in 1832, thanks to the patronage of Antonio Barezzi he moved to Milan, despite not being admitted to the Conservatory. Oberto conte di San Bonifacio, his first opera, is staged with moderate success at La Scala in 1839 but it is Nabucco, three years later, that marked his first great triumph. After many masterpieces, including Ernani (1844) and Macbeth (1847), he creates the "popular trilogy": Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata (1851-1853). He reiceived important commissions from abroad: Les vêpres siciliennes (Paris, 1855), La forza del destino (St. Petersburg, 1862), Don Carlos (Paris, 1867) and Aida (Cairo, 1871). After the Requiem Mass (1874), Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893), he died in Milan on January 27, 1901.

LUCA RONCONI

Born in Sousse, Tunisia, in 1933, he graduated from the acting course of the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome in 1953. In 1963 he began to work as a stage director, with the company of Corrado Pani and Gianmaria Volonte. In 1977, after two years as the director of the Theatre Section of the Venice Biennale, he founded the Laboratory of theatrical design of Prato. Director of Teatro Stabile di Torino from 1989 to 1994 and the Teatro di Roma from 1994 to 1998, in 1999 he became the artistic director at the Piccolo di Milano. He has received honorary degrees from the universities of Bologna, Perugia, Urbino and Venice. He made many of his opera debut performances in Florence: Orfeo ed Euridice (1976), Nabucco and Il Trovatore (1977), Norma (1978), Das Rheingold (1979), Die Walküre and Les Contes d'Hoffmann (1980), Siegfried and Die Götterdämmerung (1981), Fierrabras (1995), L'Orfeo (1998), Lohengrin (1999), L'incoronazione di Poppea (2000) and Falstaff (2006).

Ambrogio Maestri

AMBROGIO MAESTRI

Ambrogio Maestri has played the role of Falstaff more than 200 times in major theaters around the world. He was born in Pavia, where he studied voice and piano, and in 2001 he made his debut as the protagonist in Falstaff staged at La Scala and in Busseto for the centenary of Verdi conducted by Riccardo Muti. Among his most frequent roles are Amonasro, Dulcamara, Nabucco and Scarpia. In 2012 he took part in the film 'Magnifica presenza' by Ferzan Ozpetek. In Florence he sang in Tosca in 2010 and in Aida in 2011. On April 13, 2014, at the Theatro Municipal di Sao Paulo, Brazil, his Falstaff was interrupted by twenty minutes of applause: to resume the performance Maestro John Neschling invited him to repeat the final fugue to the enthusiasm of the audience.

Stalls 1	€ 100
Stalls 2	€ 80
Stalls 3	€ 60
Boxes / Gallery 1	€ 35
Gallery 2	€ 20
Limited visibility	€ 10

Season 2014/2015

Opera

Falstaff

Artists

Approfondimenti

VIDEO

VIDEO

VIDEO

ACT I

ACT II

ACT III

GIUSEPPE VERDI

LUCA RONCONI

AMBROGIO MAESTRI

Dates

Prices

Where

Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

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