Falstaff – Mid Wales Opera’s first ever production of Verdi’s comic masterpiece.
Mid Wales Opera has an established reputation for productions which are original, ambitious, and unexpected. With a few surprises in store and Verdi’s vibrant music Falstaff will make for a mirthful evening of entertainment at Mwldan on Monday 1st November at 7.30pm. Mid Wales Opera has a prestigious new musical and artistic director in Nicholas Cleobury and he has chosen for his first production to present Verdi’s Falstaff, an opera which the company has never tackled before – making two firsts for MWO in 2010.
Following the enthusiastic response last year to Mozart’s comic masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro last year, Mid Wales Opera have once more engaged the director/designer team of Martin Lloyd-Evans and Bridget Kimak to bring their imaginative approach to Verdi’s last opera. Falstaff is, in many ways, ideally suited to Mid Wales Opera. It is essentially an ensemble piece and, whilst dominated by the great character of Falstaff himself, is full of the most inventive music in which all the characters play their part.
Verdi adapted Shakespeare’s comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor for Falstaff, and, with Otello, which was composed immediately beforehand, Falstaff provides a perfect culmination to his life’s work and sealed his reputation as the master of the nineteenth century’s opera stage. These works have never been out of performance in the major opera houses but it is less usual for Falstaff to be presented on a smaller scale.
Shakespeare’s larger than life character Falstaff is at the centre of the plot, which is based on the play The Merry Wives of Windsor. Verdi and Boito (his librettist) wanted to incorporate elements of the more magnificent “Sir John” of Shakespeare’s Henry IV rather than the more pathetic version of the old knight, the butt of the Merry Wives’ wiles in the later play. This gives the opera the opportunity to present a Falstaff of considerable complexity and burgeoning self-knowledge, and the drama of the opera is all the stronger for it.
Falstaff will be performed in English so that the full humour and intricacy of the plot can be fully appreciated and the production will be using the brilliant libretto by Amanda Holden who has provided many excellent translations for Mid Wales Opera in the past. The witty and scintillating score will be realised by Mid Wales Opera’s acclaimed chamber orchestra and their leader Simon Chalk with Nicholas Cleobury taking up the conductor’s baton for the first time.
Nicholas has selected a cast with a blend of experience and youthful energy, all regular performers with the UK’s leading opera companies. Falstaff will be sung by Charles Johnston who has an enviable reputation in Verdian roles, including Posa in Don Carlos, and the title roles in Nabucco and Rigoletto. Wyn Pencarreg will sing the role of Ford, another villain to add to his role as Count Almaviva in last year’s Figaro and Hoffmann’s evil rivals the year before. Other favourites include, Gaynor Keeble as Dame Quickly and Simon Wilding as Pistol. The young lovers will be played by the tenor Benjamin Segal as Fenton and company newcomer, Martene Grimson as Nannetta. Segal’s lyric tenor voice has been a great hit with audiences in Mid Wales Opera’s last two productions and Australian soprano Martene already has a strong reputation for her opera and recital performances.
Other newcomers for this production will include Ted Schmitz as Caius, Stuart Haycock as Bardolph, and Catrin Johnsson playing Mistress Page. Prominent Scottish soprano Lee Bisset will take the role of Alice Ford. Bisset represented Scotland at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2005 and has been showered with prizes including the Dame Eva Turner award for dramatic sopranos. She is one of several outstanding singers who make up the exceptional cast for this magnificent opera.
Tickets for Falstaff are £20 (£19) and are available to book online at www.mwldan.co.uk or via the Theatr Mwldan’s Box Office on 01239 621200.
Falstaff
By Giuseppe Verdi
Accompanied by Mid Wales Opera’s Chamber Orchestra
Nos Lun 1 Tachwedd | Monday 1 November, 7.30pm/yh
