Falstaff staggers into Norfolk
By Teresa Annas, The Virginian-Pilot © September 27, 2013
Sir John Falstaff is a lovable, often tipsy knight who makes merry in three of William Shakespeare’s plays.
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Falstaff,” centered on that character, is often set in Shakespeare’s era of the 16th and 17th centuries. Virginia Opera’s premiere production of “Falstaff,” opening at 8 tonight at Harrison Opera House in Norfolk, takes place in the early 1890s, when the Italian composer crafted it.
“Our Falstaff is a kind of late 19th century English dipsomaniac,” said Stephen Lawless, the production’s British director. He means the fool drinks a lot, but his situation’s changed.
“He’s a kind of English actor-manager,” like Laurence Olivier or Kenneth Branagh, but without much work or money.
Instead of in the Garter Inn, the production is set in the Garter Theatre in Windsor. That’s Windsor as in Shakespeare’s comedy “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” from which Verdi borrowed heavily for this opera.
“It’s very much a celebration of a life in the theater,” Lawless said. Verdi was an especially theatrical opera composer, and this year marks his 200th birthday. “I was very much looking forward to celebrating it with this production.”
Shakespeare was one of Verdi’s greatest inspirations, Lawless said. From the Bard, Verdi learned to craft a continuous drama, where scenes flow from one into the other. That’s emphasized here with a set enabling quick scene changes.
Patrons will likely wonder about the onstage baskets labeled with the titles of Shakespeare’s play.
An example of how the baskets will be used: In the final scene, set in a forest, fairies will pull their costumes out of a basket labeled “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and witches will pluck their outfits from one marked “Macbeth.”
Also like Shakespeare, Verdi learned “to run two or three plots at the same time and two or three emotions or psychological states at the same time,” the director said, “which I find really, really interesting.”
In Act 1, conductor Joseph Rescigno has to manage nine people singing different things at varying tempos at the same time.
“It’s a tricky opera,” Rescigno said. But that nonet, “it’s one of the most dangerous.”
What’s the worst that might happen? “I don’t want to think of it. This opera is very much a house of cards in certain aspects, where if one person makes a mistake, it can all go a different way.”
Not that Rescigno is expecting that. He is the Italian-born principal conductor for the Florentine Opera Company in Milwaukee and has led orchestras worldwide. In 2011, he made his Virginia Opera debut conducting Richard Wagner’s “The Valkyrie.”
A fugue at the end of “Falstaff” also is tough, he said. The simplest version of a fugue is the musical round “Row, row, row your boat,” he said. Imagine that concept, but vastly more complex.
“This is a 10-part fugue. Ten people come in and start singing this countermelody, and all of this happens at the same time, and the chorus is involved in it. All singing different parts.
“It’s unbelievably exciting.”
Someone once asked Rescigno if he had a favorite opera. Not really, he said, “but I might have two favorite moments in opera and I’ll have done them both at Virginia Opera,” he said. “That’s the last 20 minutes of ‘The Valkyrie’ and the final fugue in ‘Falstaff.’ Those are the two most wonderful things I know of.”
Teresa Annas, 757-446-2485,teresa.annas@pilotonline.com
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Want to go?
What Verdi’s “Falstaff,” produced by Virginia Opera
Where Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Blvd., Norfolk
When 8 tonight, 2:30 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Tickets $29 to $114; $15 student tickets available day of performance
Contact 673-7282, www.vaopera.org