大象传媒

Andrew is joined by Verdi expert Roger Parker to discuss the best recordings of Verdi's final opera, Falstaff, in which the giant of Italian opera pays tribute to the giant of world drama in a humane and genial comedy.

Verdi admired Shakespeare all his life. He turned Macbeth and Othello into lyric dramas which are great in their own terms. Despite a burning desire to turn King Lear into an opera, that was not to be. But for the final fruit of his Indian summer, Verdi teamed up with the great librettist Arrigo Boito to create a work full of wit, dashing orchestral sonorities and quick-silver melodies. And he forged a musical language which responds the to ebb and flow of the drama in a way comparable to expressive and flexible verse of Shakespeare's greatest masterpieces.

Top recommendation:

VERDI: Falstaff
Tito Gobbi (Falstaff), Luigi Alva (Fenton), Rolando Panerai (Ford), Tomaso Spataro (Dr Caius), Renato Ercolani (Bardolfo), Nicola Zaccaria (Pistola), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Alice Ford), Anna Moffo (Nannetta), Nan Merriman (Meg Page), Fedora Barbieri (Mistress Quickly), Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Herbert von Karajan (conductor)
WARNER 9481992 (2CD mid-price + download)

Below is a shortlist of other recordings which Roger Parker also liked, although we can鈥檛 guarantee the availability of these discs.

VERDI: Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff (Geraint Evans), Mistress Quickly (Giulietta Simionato), Alice Ford (Ilva Ligabue), Ford (Robert Merrill), Nanneta (Mirella Freni), Fenton Alfredo Kraus, Meg Page (Rosalind Elias), Dr Cajus (John Lanigan), Bardolfo (Piero de Palma), Pistola (Giovanni Foiani), RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Chorus, Sir Georg Solti (conductor)
DECCA E4756677 (Download)

VERDI: Falstaff
Bryn Terfel (Falstaff), Thomas Hampson (Ford), Adrianne Pieczonka (Alice Ford), Danill Shtoda (Fenton), Dorothea Roschmann (Nannetta), Larissa Diadkova (Mistress Quickly), Stella Doufexis (Meg Page), Anthony Mee (Bardolfo), Enrico Facini (Dr Cajus), Anatoly Kotcherga (Pistola), Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Claudio Abbado (conductor)
DG 4711942 (2CD)

VERDI: Falstaff
Giuseppe Valdengo (Falstaff), Herva Nelli (Mistress Alice Ford), Nan Merriman (Mistress Meg Page), Cloe Elmo (Mistress Quickly), Frank Guarrera (Ford), Teresa Stich-Randall (Nannetta), Antonio Madasi (Fenton), Gabor Carelli (Dr Caius), John Carmen Rossi (Bardolph), Norman Scott (Pistol), Robert Shaw Chorale, NBC Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini (conductor)
(recorded 1950)
RCA 74321723722 (2-CD, mid-price)

VERDI: Falstaff
Michele Pertusi (Falstaff), Carlos Alvarez (Ford), Bulent Bezduz (Fenton), Alasdair Elliott (Dr. Cajus), Peter Hoare (Bardolfo), Darren Jeffrey (Pistola), Ana Ibarra (Alice Ford), Maria Jose Moreno (Nannetta), Jane Henschel (Mistress Quickly), Marina Domashenko (Meg Page), London Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, Sir Colin Davis (conductor)
LSO LIVE LSO0055 (Download)

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