Falstaff, Opera San Jose, Sept. 12 2013

Falstaff was Verdi’s final opera, following Aida and Otello, and only his second comedy—his first, Un Giorno di Regno, had bombed at its premiere. It’s rather different than his prior operas. There is only one proper “aria” (Falstaff’s discourse on honor, and Ford’s on cuckoldry, are “monologues”), and the melodies come so thick and fast that it’s easy to get the impression that there are no melodies. Studying for the opera beforehand is always productive, but I got even more than usual out of studying (and presenting) Falstaff. I had seen Falstaff a few times, and had never gotten much out of it. This time, with study and with a top-notch performance by Opera San Jose, I finally got it.

The sets were simple but lovely. All six scenes were set, more or less, within a gigantic wine barrel, befitting Falstaff’s love of drink and the fact that half the scenes take place within or just outside a tavern. It was as though you were looking through a wine barrel, from the middle back to the end. There were three huge three-quarter circles (“ribs”) that encompassed the stage, the largest one in front, the smallest in back. In Act 1 Scene 1, the back of the barrel (or its bottom) was rough-hewn wood, with a small door at the bottom through which characters could enter and exit. At the left there was a small pile of barrels; to the right, a table made from a slab of wood supported by two barrels. For Scene 2, we moved to Ford’s home. The back (bottom) of the barrel opened up to reveal a garden with a green hedge running from left to right just in back of the barrel, and a couple of staircases were present at left and right.

Act 2 Scene 1 was back at the tavern, with the same set as before. In Scene 2 we were in a different room in Ford’s house. Now the back of the barrel was the fine wood of a drawing-room, with a deer’s head mounted on a plaque on the wall. In addition to the staircases, there was a bit of furniture: a chair, a table, a cabinet, and of course a folding screen that first Falstaff and then Fenton and Nannetta could hide behind.

Act 3 Scene 1 was back at the tavern, but this time outside of it. To the left was a pile of straw, with a couple of wine barrels imbedded in the straw. Falstaff was brought in in a rustic wooden wheelbarrow and unceremoniously dumped into the pile of straw. Act 3 Scene 2 was set in Windsor Forest. The back of the barrel was open again; just in front of it was a gigantic tree with a very large elliptical hole cut into the trunk, easily large enough for the characters to walk through.

Our cast:
Falstaff: Scott Bearden
Fenton: James Callon
Alice Ford: Jennifer Forni
Ford: Zachary Altman
Bardolfo: Jonathan Smucker
Pistola: Silas Elash
Meg Page: Lisa Chavez
Dame Quickly: Nicole Birkland
Dr. Caius: Robert Norman
Nannetta: Cecilia Violetta López
Conductor: Andrew Whitfield
Director: Jose Maria Condemi
 
What a team! Scott Bearden should be singing Falstaff all over the country, and everyone else supported him admirably. The performance had the life and the sparkle that a comedy needs. San Francisco Opera and the Metropolitan opera have also scheduled Falstaff for this fall, and they are going to be hard-pressed to top this one. We’re getting into alpha territory here.