''Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle'' (''Falstaff, or The Three Jokes'') is a ''
dramma giocoso'' in two acts by
Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri (18 August 17507 May 1825) was an Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher. He was born in Legnago, south of Verona, in the Republic of Venice, and spent his adult life and career as a subject of the Habsburg monarchy ...
, set to a
libretto by
Carlo Prospero Defranceschi after
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''
The Merry Wives of Windsor''.
One of the earliest operatic versions of Shakespeare's play, Salieri's ''Falstaff'' is notable for a general compression and streamlining of the original plot, note the absence of the two young lovers, Fenton and Anne, and the addition of a scene in which Mistress Ford pretends to be German to charm Falstaff (actually two such scenes exist, one in a separate score by Salieri was probably omitted from the original Viennese productions). Defranceschi moves the plot and structure away from Elizabethan drama and closer to the standard conventions of late 18th century
opera buffa
''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...
.
Highlights include the Sinfonia (overture) in the style of
contra dance
Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) is a form of folk dancing made up of long lines of couples.
It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles in the 17th ...
s. The entire opera shows the influence of
Mozart's ''
Le nozze di Figaro
''The Marriage of Figaro'' ( it, Le nozze di Figaro, links=no, ), K. 492, is a ''commedia per musica'' (opera buffa) in four acts composed in 1786 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It premie ...
'', which was being successfully revived at the time. Among the musical highlights, besides the sinfonia, are Falstaff's strutting Act I patter aria, the quartet in Act I, the duettino "La stessa, La stessissima", the technically brilliant "laughter" trio in the opening moments of Act II, the canonical duet of Mr. and Mrs. Ford toward the end of Act II (featuring a rare late 18th century cello solo) and the grand finale to Act II. Throughout the score Salieri employs careful tone painting, parody of opera seria conventions, a more harmonically interesting structure for the secco recitative, and more involved counterpoint; traits that have helped return Falstaff to the playing boards.
Performance history
It was first performed at the
Kärntnertortheater in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, timezone_DST ...
on 3 January 1799. Twenty-six performances were given between then and 1802. The American premiere took place on 15 November 1974 in the National Theater of the
Boston Center for the Arts
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
with David Arnold in the title role, supported by Elizabeth Phinney, Pamela Gore, Frank Hoffmeister, and Ernest Triplett, with an English translation by Michael Auclair and scenery by William Fregosi. The conductor was Robert Willoughby Jones.
Bampton Classical Opera performed it in 2004.
Roles
Arrangements
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
used the duet ''La stessa, La stessissima'' for a series of variations, WoO 73.
[Rice, John A.: ''Falstaff'' in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ]
Discography
*Romano Franceschetto, Fernando Luis Ciuffo, Filippo Bettoschi, Milan Madrigalists, Chiara Chialli, et al. Alberto Veronesi cond, Guido Cantelli Orchestra Milan. 2 CDs, DDD, Chandos, 17 March 1998
*Simon Edwards,
Salomé Haller, Liliana Faraon, Raimonds Spogis, Hjördis Thébault, et al. Jean-Claude Malgoire cond.,
La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, Chantres de la Chapelle de Versailles. 2 CDs, DDD, Dynamic, 3 March 2003
*József Gregor, Mária Zempléni, Dénes Gulyás, Istvan Gáti, Eva Pánczél, et al. Tamás Pál cond., Salieri Chamber Orchestra, Salieri Chamber Chorus. 3 CDs, DDD, Hungaroton, 27 September 2003
*John Del Carlo, Teresa Ringholz, Richard Croft, Delores Ziegler, Jake Gardner, et al. Claus Viller, Agnes Meth dir., Arnold Östmann cond., Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart. DVD, 120 mins, Arthaus Musik, 31 July 2000
References
Sources
*
External links
Libretto (PDF)
{{authority control
Drammi giocosi
Operas by Antonio Salieri
Operas
1799 operas
Operas based on The Merry Wives of Windsor