Falstaff

Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle (Falstaff, or The Three Jokes) is a dramma giocoso in two acts by Antonio Salieri, set to a libretto by Carlo Prospero Defranceschi after William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. One of the earliest operatic versions of Shakespeare's play, Salieri's Falstaff is notable for 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 Fa... more

Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle (Falstaff, or The Three Jokes) is a dramma giocoso in two acts by Antonio Salieri, set to a libretto by Carlo Prospero Defranceschi after William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. One of the earliest operatic versions of Shakespeare's play, Salieri's Falstaff is notable for 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. The architecture of the piece is designed to keep the action flowing, utilising dozens of arias bridged by brisque recitative, leading towards grand finales and keeping the pace from flagging during the opera's three-hour span. Highlights include the military overture, Fallstaff's strutting Act I aria, the technically brilliant "laughter" trio in Act II and the ensemble finale to Act III. Beethoven used the duet La stessa, La stessissima for a series of variations, WoO 73. It was first performed at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna on... less