Verdi's "Falstaff"

Synopsis

Of all the comic creations of William Shakespeare, the fat knight Sir John Falstaff ranks highest in popularity. In Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” history plays, Sir John appears as the Lord of Misrule, a bad but endearing companion to the young prince Hal. In Shakespeare’s comedy “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” supposedly written at the personal request of Queen Elizabeth the First, Sir John’s amatory exploits are held up to ridicule.

Now, in addition to comic plays, there are such thing as comic operas, and, in the 18th century, two of Mozart’s contemporaries, Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf and Antonio Salieri, had a go at adapting “The Merry Wives of Windsor” into operas. In the 19th century, the German composer and conductor Otto Nicolai scored a big hit with his “Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor,” which proved the most successful of all Falstaff operas to date, and remains a favorite to this day.

But pride of place must be reserved for the Falstaff opera that premiered on today’s date in 1893, at the La Scala opera in Milan. This “Falstaff” was the last opera written by Giuseppe Verdi, famous for his blood and thunder melodramas and tragic operas. Approaching eighty, Verdi proved surprisingly adept at comedy, setting the nimble libretto crafted by Arrigo Boito to music as sly and quick-witted as the character Shakespeare created some three hundred years earlier.

Music Played in Today's Program

Antonio Salieri (1750 - 1825) Falstaff Overture London Mozart Players; Matthias Bamert, cond. Chandos 9877

Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) Finale, fr Falstaff Cincinnati Pops; Erich Kunzel, cond. Telarc 80364

On This Day

Births

• 1834 - German composer Franz Xaver Witt, in Walderbach, Bavaria;

• 1885 - Austrian composer Alban Berg, in Vienna;

• 1909 - German composer Harald Genzmer, in Blumenthal, near Bremen;

Deaths

• 1740 - German composer, organist and teacher Vincent Lübeck, age c. 85, in Hamburg;

• 1812 - German composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister, age 57, in Vienna;

• 1960 - Hungarian composer Ernö (Ernst von) Dohnányi, age 82, in New York City;

Premieres

• 1722 - ; first documented concert performance of Handel: “Water Music” at the Stationer’s Hall in London (Gregorian date: Feb. 20); Handel’s “Water Music” had been premiered on July 17/28, 1717, during a famous royal barge excursion on the river Thames;

• 1727 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 84 ("Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke") probably performed on Septuagesimae Sunday as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27);

• 1728 - Gay & Pepusch: ballad-opera, “The Beggar’s Opera,” in London (Julian date: Jan. 29);

• 1812 - Beethoven: private premieres of "The Ruins of Athens" and "King Stephen" Overture and Incidental Music, as part of a production at the opening of a new theater in Pest, Hungary (see also Feb. 10 for offical public premiere);

• 1886 - Mussorgsky (arr. Rimsky-Korsakov): opera “Khovanschchina,” posthumously, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Feb. 21);

• 1893 - Verdi: opera, "Falstaff," in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala; This was Verdi's last opera;

• 1909 - Albéniz: piano suite, "Iberia," in Paris;

• 1919 - Chadwick: symphonic poem "Angel of Death" in New York;

Others

• 1784 - Mozart finishes his Piano Concerto No. 14 in Eb, K. 449, and enters it as the first item in his own catalogue of his compositions; The concerto may have been performed by Mozart in Vienna on March 17 that year, and also outside Vienna at the home of Barbara von Ployer, one of Mozart's pupils, for whom the work was written.